Hiroshige II (1826–1869) was a Japanese designer of ukiyo-e woodblock prints, the leading pupil of Utagawa Hiroshige and the inheritor of his master's name.
He was born Suzuki Chinpei in 1826. As a young man he entered the studio of Utagawa Hiroshige, the great landscape printmaker of the late Edo period, and worked under the art name Shigenobu. He married Hiroshige's daughter, Otatsu, and his teacher intended him as his artistic heir.
When Hiroshige died in 1858, Shigenobu took the name Hiroshige and is known today as Hiroshige II. He worked in the landscape and famous-places genre his master had made his own, producing series of views of provinces, cities, and scenic sites across Japan. His prints often carried the bright synthetic blues that were spreading through the print trade in those years.
His most significant act of continuity was completing the celebrated series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, which Hiroshige I left unfinished at his death. Hiroshige II added designs and saw the set through, helping carry his master's vision of the city to its conclusion. He also designed prints for the new treaty ports, recording the foreign ships and buildings appearing at Yokohama.
His personal life shifted in the mid-1860s. His marriage to Otatsu ended, and in 1865 he left Edo for Yokohama, where he took the name Kisai Risshō and worked on commercial and export designs. The succession of the Hiroshige name then passed to another pupil, who became Hiroshige III.
Hiroshige II's reputation has long stood in the shadow of his teacher, but he was a capable landscape designer in his own right, and a key link in the transmission of one of the most beloved names in Japanese printmaking. He died in 1869.
If you want to know more about the artist: Hiroshige II - Wikipedia
