桃の花に燕, 広重 Peach Blossom and Swallow, Hiroshige Postcard

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797 – October 12, 1858) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige (an irregular combination of family name and art name) and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige. An evaluation is high in the work of Hiroshige Utagawa with beauty of blue particularly the indigo blue with bold composition in Europe and U.S.A. This bright blue is a colour of the indigo plant (indigo) and I liken it to "Japan blue" or Vermeer blue (lapis lazuli) in Europe and America and am called "the Hiroshige blue". It is said that the Hiroshige blue had a big influence on painters of the Impressionists which rose from France of the late 19th century and artists of the are nouveau and is done with one of the factors that laid the fashion of the Japonisme in those days.