Hiroshige aims to depict activity relevant to the moment in a specific landscape. In this respect, his scenes in Japan correlate with J.M.W. Turner’s picturesque landscapes of the United Kingdom.

While picnicking under the blooming cherry trees at Gotenyama, too much food and sake instigate a drunken brawl. Compare this with the rowdy sailors at the end of a wedding in J.M.W. Turner’s Dartmouth Cove (1827).

Featured Image: Hiroshige. Picnic at Gotenyama (1833). Famous Views of the Eastern Capital (1833-1843); http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/tokaido_hoeido/tokaido_hoeido.htm

Ando Hiroshige is among the masters of Japanese painting known for his landscape views. (Also known as Utagawa Hiroshige and Ichiyūsai Hiroshige.) A leader of member of the Utawaga School, his best-known works are Famous Places in the Eastern Capital (1831), The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido (1833-1834), Famous Views of the Eastern Capital (1831-1834), The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido, and One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856-1858).