
Here, Utagawa Hiroshige is depicted as a monk in a Buddhist monastery seated on a cushion. He is dressed in a priestly garb of green and an overgarment of thin, black silk gauze. The lengthy text by Hiroshige’s good friend, writer Tenmei Rojin, gives an account of the artist’s career, ending with Hiroshige’s farewell poem: “Dropping my brush in Azuma [Edo], I go the long journey to the western country [paradise] to view there the wonderful scenery.”

Komurasaki of the Miuraya and Shirai Gompachi (Miuraya Komurasaki, Shirai Gompachi)
Kitagawa Utamaro 喜多川 歌麿 Japanese, c.1753-1806

Hamamatsu, from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858

Mitsuke: Ferries Crossing the Tenryu River (Mitsuke, Tenryugawa funawatashi), from the series "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (Tokaido gojusan tsugi)," also known as the Tokaido with Poem (Kyoka iri Tokaido)
Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川 広重 Japanese, 1797-1858