Memorial Monument for Utagawa Hiroshige II

This 1882 oban woodblock print (nishiki-e) by Utagawa Hiroshige III, held by the Art Institute of Chicago (accession number 1939.1516), is a poignant memorial print depicting the funerary monument erected for Hiroshige II (1826-1869) thirteen years after his death. The print measures 38.1 by 25.9 cm, the standard ōban single-sheet format, and shows the stone memorial monument set within a temple or shrine precinct. The print is one of the most direct visual documents of the contested succession of the Hiroshige name across three generations of Utagawa designers: Hiroshige I (1797-1858), the founder, was succeeded by his pupil Suzuki Chinpei as Hiroshige II, who in turn yielded the studio to Andō Tokubei (Hiroshige III) after the dissolution of Hiroshige II's marriage to Hiroshige I's daughter in the mid-1860s. The relationship between Hiroshige II and Hiroshige III had reportedly been strained — they had been rival pupils for the Hiroshige name — and the production of a memorial print by Hiroshige III thirteen years after Hiroshige II's death suggests both a settling of past disputes and a deliberate affirmation of the genealogical continuity of the Hiroshige line. The print is preserved in the Art Institute of Chicago's collection of Japanese woodblock prints.