Large print guide

Animation label (straight ahead):

Duration: 1 minute 30 seconds
This animation has no sound.

Print label:

隅田堤闇夜の桜
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Cherry Blossoms on a Moonless Night along the Sumida River, 1847–8

Published by Iseya Ichiemon
Colour woodblock print triptych (three-sheet print)
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.4

Introduction panel:
広重 旅の画家
Hiroshige
artist of the open road

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) was one of Japan's most prolific and popular artists. People at every level of society embraced his calm, lyrical depictions of daily life, nature and the rural landscape. The work of modern and contemporary artists across Europe, the US and Japan reveals his lasting influence.

Label on opposite wall:

広重の死絵　歌川国貞 画
Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1864)
Memorial portrait of Utagawa Hiroshige

This is the best known of just a few surviving portraits of Hiroshige. His four closest friends and colleagues collaborated to honour him in this dignified memorial. It was published soon after his sudden death in 1858, possibly from cholera. He appears as the Buddhist layperson he became at the age of 60. 

Published by Sakanaya Eikichi
Colour woodblock print
British Museum 1912,1112,0.16

Wall quote:
甲斐の山々遠近に連ねり、山高くして谷深く、桂川の 流れ清麗なり。十歩二十歩行間にかわる絶景、言葉に たえたり、拙筆に写しがたし。

「甲斐旅日記」 歌川広重 著 天保十二年四月四日 

The mountains of Kai Province stretch into the distance: high peaks, low valleys, the pure running waters of the Katsura River, the magnificent views changing every ten or twenty paces – beyond words to describe, beyond my poor brush to capture. 

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), Diary of a Trip to Kai Province, 1841

Panel on the right-hand wall:
名声への道のり
Hiroshige's road to fame

Born into a low-ranking samurai family in Edo (present-day Tokyo), Hiroshige was orphaned aged twelve and inherited his father's title of fire warden. A superior in the fire department taught him to paint in the Kano school style.
By the 1830s he was focusing on his best-known subjects: tranquil views of famous places, city life and the natural world.

Hiroshige lived at the end of the Edo period (1615–1868), when a samurai government ruled Japan from the city of Edo. It was a time of urban growth, but also of famine, social crisis and foreign military incursions. Hiroshige, however, avoided depicting turmoil in his art.

Print labels:

隅田川雪見之図
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Snow-viewing along the Sumida River, 1832–4

Published by Sanoya Kihei
Colour woodblock print triptych
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh 2024,AFBMLoan.1.6

漢魏・和藤内
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Han Wei and Watōnai, 1820s

Early in his career Hiroshige designed prints based on popular kabuki theatre. Here he shows the dramatic moment in the Battles of Coxinga (1715) when the hero Watōnai confronts General Han Wei, demanding military support. The mass-production of colour woodblock prints during the Edo period meant that ordinary people could buy beautifully made but disposable prints for a handful of coins.

Published by Iwatoya Kisaburō
Colour woodblock print diptych (two-sheet print)
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.28

外と内姿八景　田甫の落雁・衣々の晩鐘
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Geese Alighting on Rice Fields and the Evening Bell When Parting Ways, early 1820s

A yūjo (female sex worker or courtesan) reclines on a double mattress.

Bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women), one of the most popular print subjects, often contained playful references. Here the geese alight on fields near the brothel district and the evening bell indicates the end of the customer's session. Both motifs come from a theme in classical Chinese poetry and painting called the 'Eight Views'.

From Eight Views of Figures Indoors and Out, published by Nishimuraya Yohachi
Colour woodblock print
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.29 

東都八景　洲崎 御殿山 高輪 佃
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Susaki, Goten Hill, Takanawa and Tsukuda, about 1831

Of all the genres that engaged Hiroshige it was his realistic, yet richly poetic, landscapes that earned him greatest fame in his lifetime and continue to win admiration today.

These four prints belong to one of his earliest landscape series, Eight Views of the Eastern Capital. They depict wellknown sights around Edo Bay. The 'Eight Views' Chinese literary and painting theme was often used by Japanese artists to celebrate Japan's lakes, rivers and coastal areas.

From Eight Views of the Eastern Capital, published by Sanoya Kihei
Colour woodblock prints
Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh

東都名所　新吉原朝桜之図
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) 
Morning Cherry Blossoms in the New Yoshiwara, about 1831

Hiroshige depicts his home city Edo in his first major landscape series, Famous Places in the Eastern Capital. These prints show New Yoshiwara, Edo's only licensed brothel district, famous for the cherry trees that lined its main street in springtime. A patron parts with a courtesan at dawn.

Some designs were reissued with colour variations to appeal to different tastes. The predominance of blue in the top example suggests to Japanese print specialists that this is the earlier version.

From Famous Places in the Eastern Capital, published by Kawaguchiya Shōzō
Colour woodblock prints

Top: early edition
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

Bottom: later edition
British Museum 1929,0516,0.19

Film label:

暈(ぼか)し

The bokashi technique

The artist Hiroko Imada demonstrates the bokashi (gradation) woodblock printing technique.

The film is two minutes long and has no sound.

Print label:

本朝名所 駿州冨士川渡船之圖

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Ferry on the Fuji River, Suruga Province, about 1832

Hiroshige expanded his repertoire to include views across Japan around 1832. Here, his simple composition and use of bokashi (printed gradation) in the sky, mountain and water create a serene effect. His publisher at first issued only three designs in this series. As Hiroshige's popularity grew, he commissioned twelve more. Collaboration with the publisher, block cutter and printer helped Hiroshige to realise his artistic vision.

From Famous Places in Japan, published by Fujiokaya Hikotarō
Colour woodblock print
British Museum 1923,0515,0.4

Object label:

馬楝(ばれん)

Baren (printer's pad)

The printer brushes ink onto a woodblock, lays paper on top and uses a baren to transfer the ink to the paper without a mechanical press. The baren is made from a coil of bamboo twine sandwiched between discs of lacquered paper and wrapped in bamboo bark. Thin twine responds to light pressure for delicate printing effects.
In Hiroshige's time, baren were made by specialist craftspeople.

Bamboo bark, lacquered paper
British Museum OA+.7399

Panel at the beginning of the curved wall
opposite:
道中を活写する
Picturing the open road

Although the samurai government had banned foreign travel since the 1630s, by Hiroshige's time there was a burgeoning interest in domestic journeys. Samurai lords with hundreds of attendants made their way to Edo to pay their respects to the shogun. Others set off on business, pilgrimage and sightseeing trips, independently or in organised groups.

Inspired by his own explorations, East Asian painting traditions and guidebooks, Hiroshige created landscape pictures that were visually inviting and filled with human interest. They also offered an imaginative escape for those unable to travel.

Landscapes and meisho (famous places) were a safe subject for publishers during the early 1840s, a period of severe censorship. 

Print label:

弁才天開帳登詣群衆之図
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Crowds on Pilgrimage to See the Display of Treasures at the Enoshima Benzaiten Shrine in Sagami Province, 1851

Published by Sumiyoshiya Masagorō
Colour woodblock print triptych
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh 2025,AFBMLoan.1.5

Small panel:
広重の旅
Hiroshige's travels

Like many artists of his time, Hiroshige travelled Japan for pleasure and to reach towns where wealthy merchants had commissioned his work. His diaries from the 1840s and 50s suggest that he was observant and curious about the world around him. Scenes of rural life and untamed landscapes touched him deeply and may have shaped his portrayal of places he never saw in person. His open-air sketches sometimes informed his finished work.

Wall case:
Scroll label:

上総鹿楚山(かずさかのうざん)
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Landscape of Mount Kanō in Kazusa province,
about 1848–58

Mount Kanō drew visitors for its dramatic mountain scenery and lively religious life. Hiroshige visited twice, in 1841 and 1852, staying for about a week each time. On his first trip he attended a festival at the Shiratori Shrine, which sits perched over the deep valleys seen in this atmospheric painting. Hiroshige's deft brushwork captures the dense forests and mist that cover the mountain and valleys.

Hanging scroll
Ink and colour on silk
British Museum 1881,1210,0.1895

Table-case label:

上総鹿埜山 (かずさかのうざん)　旅亭の図
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Scene at an inn on Mount Kanō, Kazusa Province, 1840s–50s

Six poets visiting Mount Kanō chat after an evening bath, rain pouring outside their inn. Hiroshige recorded joining a drinking party on a similarly rainy night in the diary of his first trip to Mount Kanō.

He created his earliest prints and book illustrations for poets of kyōka ('mad verse') and remained connected to their world throughout his career.

From Portraits of Merrymaking: A Kyōka Collection, vol. 1
Woodblock printed illustrated book
Ebi Collection, UK, Ebi0821
Ex collection Eugène Gillet

Print label:

武陽金沢八勝夜景
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) 
Evening View of the Eight Scenic Spots of Kanazawa in Musashi Province, 1857

The full moon lights a view of Edo Bay near Kanazawa, south-west of Edo. Perhaps in the summer of 1853, Hiroshige travelled with three friends along this coast, sketching the sights and people they encountered. His sketches formed the basis for a painted handscroll and, later, this triptych (three-sheet print) commissioned by a little-known publisher.

Published by Okazawaya Taheiji
Colour woodblock print triptych
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

Image caption:

The Eight Views of Kanazawa, from Hiroshige's Model Paintings of Musashi and Sagami Provinces, 1853, a handscroll based on his sketches of the area.

Image © Hiraki Ukiyo-e Foundation 

Small panel:
東海道 江戸から京都へ
From Edo to Kyoto along the Tōkaidō

The 500-kilometre Tōkaidō (Eastern Coast Road) connected Edo (present-day Tokyo) in the east with Kyoto, the emperor's capital, in the west. It was the most travelled highway in Japan. The fifty-three post stations provided travellers with places to rest and stock up on supplies. Accommodation ranged from simple guest houses to luxury inns reserved for daimyō (samurai lords). From around 1833 until the end of his life, Hiroshige designed more than twenty series of prints on the Tōkaidō, about 700 works. 

Print labels:

東海道五十三次之内 日本橋朝之景
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Nihonbashi – Morning Scene, about 1833–5

As the morning sun rises, the procession of a daimyō (samurai lord) heads south across Nihonbashi or the Bridge of Japan. Nihonbashi was the first station on the Tōkaidō, and the point from which all distances in Japan were measured. Hiroshige, the son of one of the shogun's fire wardens, placed a fire watchtower in the background.

From The 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō, published by Takenouchi Magohachi and Tsuruya Kiemon
Colour woodblock print
British Museum 1906,1220,0.765 

東海道五十三次之内　蒲原夜之雪
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Kanbara – Evening Snow, about 1833–5

Colour highlights three figures struggling through the snow. This design is the only one of Hiroshige's depictions of Kanbara to show the station itself, rather than the ferry crossing for which it was known. The black marks on the knees of the man on the far right were the block cutter's errors. They appear only on the earliest impressions of the design.

From The 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō, published by Takenouchi Magohachi
Colour woodblock print
British Museum 1906,1220,0.784

五十三次名所図会 由井薩多峠親知らず
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Yui: Satta Peak and Oyashirazu, 1855

After 20 years of designing horizontal landscape prints, in the early 1850s Hiroshige converted to a vertical format. He was perhaps inspired by the success of his vertical hanging-scroll paintings, produced around 1849 for a samurai lord. 

These prints, from the 'Vertical (or Upright) Tōkaidō' series, show a stunning view of Mount Fuji and the sea. The publisher produced two versions of the design, one suggesting morning, the other late afternoon.

From Illustrated Guide to Famous Places along the 53 Stations, published by Tsutaya Kichizō
Colour woodblock prints
Gifts from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.17 and 1.18

東海道五十三次之内　庄野白雨
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Shōno – Sudden Rain Shower, about 1833–5

Bamboo and stoic travellers bend under the force of a sudden downpour, an example of Hiroshige's skill in capturing moments that connect people and nature. 

Directed by Hiroshige, the printer used ink tones to create a sense of depth and layering in the bamboo forest. Hiroshige playfully inscribed the publisher's name and part of the series title on the umbrella.

From The 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō, published by Takenouchi Magohachi
Colour woodblock print
British Museum 1906,1220,0.816

Table-case labels (left to right):

東海道　五十三次之内 舞阪 荒井
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) 
The 53 Stations: Maisaka (right) and Arai (left), late 1840s

A journey along the Tōkaidō included water crossings. Porters carried people on platforms over rivers. Sail-powered ferries brought them across bays and inlets, as at Maisaka and Arai. Hiroshige designed this series for the leading publisher Tsutaya Kichizō.

Over his career, Hiroshige worked for perhaps 90 different publishers. The original key block for the Maisaka print is displayed on the right.

From The Tōkaidō, published by Tsutaya Kichizō
Colour woodblock print
British Museum 1915,0823,0.153.30–31

東海道五十三次之内　舞阪の主版(おもはん)　
現代の彫道具
Edo period key block (left)
Modern woodblock-cutting tools (right)

Few original woodblocks for single-sheet prints survive from the Edo period. They were either worn down through use or planed to make new prints.

This omohan (key or outline block) is for Hiroshige's The 53 Stations: Maisaka from The Tōkaidō (displayed on the left). The block cutter used a variety of precision tools to cut the key block. The larger areas of wood in the upper part were removed with a mallet and chisel to ensure the lines would stand clear for printing.

Key block
Mountain cherry wood
Ex collection Roger Keyes. Loan from Elizabeth Coombs

Tools
Metal and wood
Loan from Rebecca Salter CBE

Film label:

主版(おもはん)を彫る
Cutting the omohan (key block) 

Extracts from a film by the artist Kawase Hasui (1883–1957), whose work appears in the final section of the exhibition. Kawase Hasui is widely seen as Hiroshige's main successor in the modern period. The block cutter is Maeda Kentarō (1900–1965).

Colour film, 1955–8
Duration: 2 minutes
This film has no sound.

Original film: Hanga ni ikiru (A life in prints) by Kawase Hasui, produced by Watanabe Tadasu
Film © S. Watanabe Color Print Co.

Panel in the centre of the room
(right-hand side of wooden pillar):
四方の自然
Nature all around

Hiroshige's depictions of nature, especially his kachō hanga (prints of birds and flowers), show his intuitive bond with the natural world. Many are inscribed with poems, reflecting the connection between nature and poetry in Japanese culture and the high level of literacy at the time. Hiroshige's kachō hanga contributed to a sudden flourishing of the genre in Japan from the 1830s and furthered the artist's popularity.

These rare, early impressions are preserved in excellent condition. They show the subtlety of Hiroshige's eye and his feeling for colour. Their delicate detailing demonstrates the technical precision of the block cutter and printer.

Print labels:

月夜松に木菟 雨中の時鳥
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Owl on pine branch, early 1830s
Cuckoo flying in rain, early 1830s

Published by Kawaguchiya Shōzaburō
Colour woodblock prints
Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh

三日月の
船遊山して
みヽつくの
耳に入たき
松風の琴
八陣亭 詠

Sailing right along
on a three-day crescent moon,
the long-eared owl longs
for an earful of music:
the pines humming in the wind.

Hachijintei (active 1810s–30s)
Poem inscribed on Hiroshige's 'Owl on pine branch', early 1830s

初代歌川豊国 画　花鳥茶屋 
Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769–1825)
Bird-and-flower teahouse, late 1790s

From the late 1600s Japanese scholars began documenting domestic birds, other animals and plants. Their published reports inspired a wider interest in the natural world. By the late 1700s kachō chaya ('bird-and-flower teahouses'), aviaries displaying domestic and imported birds, informed and entertained visitors in major cities across Japan. They may also have provided inspiration for some of Hiroshige's works.

Published by Nishimuraya Yohachi
Colour woodblock print triptych
British Museum 1993,0805,0.1, 1902,0212,0.299–300

夏秋花鳥図
Summer and autumn birds and flowers

In the early 1830s, alongside his work on landscapes, Hiroshige began making pictures of birds and flowers. 

These four miniature prints are among his earliest designs on the theme. Each contains a poem. The block cutter skilfully captured the spontaneity of Hiroshige's brushstrokes. These small gems may have convinced several leading publishers to commission his later, more ambitious kachō hanga (bird-and-flower prints).

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)

芙蓉に小禽 Small bird and cotton rose, about 1830

竹にインコ Parakeet and bamboo, about 1830

萩に鶏 Cockerel and bush clover, about 1830

紅葉にミミズク Owl and maple tree, about 1830

Colour woodblock prints
British Museum 1915,0823,0.779; 0.781; 0.783; 0.792

Label rail for case:

花鳥絵本
Bird-and-flower illustrated books

Books on nature themes, including birds and flowers, served as reference and drawing manuals in the 1700s and 1800s.

Their use of advanced printing techniques also made them prized objects. These examples show the two main painting styles that Hiroshige synthesised in his nature prints: detailed Chinese-style studies (left and centre) and the compositionally bolder style of the Kyoto Maruyama-Shijō school (right).

北尾政美 画 『来禽図彙』
Kitao Masayoshi (1764–1824)
'Eurasian jay' from Illustrated Collection of Imported Birds, about 1790
British Museum 1915,0823,0.76

森蘭斎 画 『蘭斎画譜』 後篇 巻四
Mori Ransai (1740–1801)
'Heron resting in the snow' from Ransai's Picture Album, part II, vol. 4, 1801
British Museum 1979,0305,0.192.4

左藤水石 画 『水石画譜』 二編
Satō Suiseki (active 1806–1840)
'Wagtail and reeds' from Suiseki's Painting Album, part II, 1820
British Museum 1979,0305,0.268

Colour woodblock printed illustrated books

彫りと摺りの技法 
Block-cutting and printing techniques

Great care went into the production of commercial woodblock prints, even though they were mass produced. Techniques refined in the production of illustrated books eventually became widely used in the production of commercial single-sheet prints.

Captions for image details:

から摺り
Engraving (karazuri)
Heavy pressure with a baren (printer's pad) forces the paper into fine lines incised into a block, creating a subtly textured pattern.

きめだし
Relief printing (kimedashi)
To add relief texture to a print, paper is placed on a block with raised shapes and pressed with a printer's pad, producing sculpted details.

無線摺り
Contourless printing (musenzuri)
Areas of colour are printed without outlines to create an understated realism.

重ね摺り
Over-printing (kasanezuri)
Pigment is applied repeatedly over the same area to build up a field of intense colour.

Label for soundscape:

日本の自然　音の風景
Japanese nature sounds 

Audio in this section of the exhibition includes the sound of streams, waterfalls, rainfall and animals, including birds and crickets.

Duration: 25 minutes on a loop

Print labels:

版元
The publisher

Print production began with the publisher, who hired the artist, block cutter and printer. Hiroshige worked for around 90 publishers. Only a few had the means to produce his most luxurious bird-and-flower pictures. Hiroshige designed these ō-tanzaku (large tanzaku) prints for the publisher Wakasaya. His pictures give the poems an elegant setting.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)

紫陽花に川蝉 Kingfisher and hydrangea

日の出に波と鶴 Crane, waves and rising sun

日の出に松鷹 Falcon on pine tree with rising sun
Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh

水葵に鴛鴦 Mandarin ducks and water plantain
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.1

菊に雉子 Pheasant and chrysanthemums
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

Colour woodblock prints, early 1830s

菊の香や
ふくめる露の
ちる度に

作者未詳

Suffused with scent,
each falling drop of dew releases
the chrysanthemum's perfume!

Anonymous (1700s–early 1830s)
Poem inscribed on Hiroshige's
'Pheasant and chrysanthemums', early 1830s

版下絵から版画へ 
From drawing to finished print

To make a woodblock print the artist first produced a finely detailed hanshita-e (block-ready drawing). This was pasted onto the woodblock and destroyed during the cutting process.

Hiroshige made this drawing, probably a hanshita-e, for three prints to be cut into a single block. It survives because the prints were not produced. With it are two uncut prints, perhaps a publisher's sample or remaindered stock.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)

鶴 山雀 高麗鶯 歌川広重 筆
Crane, tit, oriole, 1830s–early 40s
Drawing, ink on paper

鉄線に文鳥 薔薇に高麗鶯 歌川広重 画
Java sparrow and clematis; Oriole and wild roses, 1830s–early 40s
Colour woodblock print

Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh

Small panel:
図様や画題の変化 
Variations on designs and themes

In a competitive business environment Japanese publishers needed to cultivate as wide an audience as possible. They may have issued variant designs of a single work as a way of appealing to different tastes. It is hard to know how involved Hiroshige would have been at this stage of the process. 

Print labels:

図様の変化 
Variations on the same design

A golden pheasant appears in winter (centre), spring (left) and summer (right) through adjustments in colour and technique. For the spring and summer versions the printer removed a thin area of blue extending across the base of the bird's neck in the winter scene. Variant designs sometimes allowed for small improvements. Probably following Hiroshige's directions, the woodblock cutter engraved lines to define the snow piled on the branches and hill, and the
printer used gradation across the length of the hill.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)

小松に錦鶏
Golden pheasant and pine seedlings, early 1830s, three variants

Colour woodblock prints
Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh

画題の変化
Variations on the same subject 

As well as devising new themes, Japanese artists in Hiroshige's time worked within a repertoire of established subjects that they reinvented through fresh compositions and stylistic approaches. Here, Hiroshige offers two variations on the theme of the perching hawk, a symbol of warrior power. On the left, the bird sits proud in the winter snow, while on the right, the rising New Year's Day sun heralds a successful year ahead.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)

雪中松に鷹
Falcon on snow-covered pine, early 1840s (left)

日の出に松鷹
Falcon on pine with rising sun, early 1840s (right)

Colour woodblock vertical diptychs
Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh 

川蝉図
Kingfisher prints

These kingfisher prints are inscribed with the same playful haiku by Sawa (Fujiya) Rosen (1661–1743): 'The kingfisher gazes / into the mirroring water / and preens its feathers.' It is the first of three poems on kingfishers included in The Five Hundred Topics Addressed by Poets of Yore, an anthology of haiku that Hiroshige often consulted for inscriptions.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)

芙蓉に川蝉
Kingfisher and cotton rose, 1830s–early 40s (left)

花菖蒲に川蝉
Kingfisher and iris, 1830s–early 40s (right)

Colour woodblock prints
Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh

漢詩と自然 
Classical Chinese poetry and nature

Hiroshige's views of nature include this incomplete series of prints inscribed with Chinese poems. These are the only two known designs from the series, presented in beautiful early impressions. Both have the grandeur of landscape painting and suggest Hiroshige's confidence with this theme. They also reflect a wider interest in classical Chinese culture at the time.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)

月二捨八景之内 弓張月
Bow Moon from Twenty-eight Aspects of the Moon, about 1832 (left)
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

月二捨八景之内 葉ごしの月
Between the Leaves from Twenty-eight Aspects of the Moon, about 1832 (right)
Gift of Robert N. Shaw
British Museum 1924,0327,0.21

Colour woodblock prints

Wall quote:
不堪紅葉青苔地、
又是涼風暮雨天

白居易 詠

These break my heart:
red leaves coating a ground of green moss,
and cool winds crossing a sky of evening rain.

Bai Juyi (AD 772–846), Chinese poet, lines inscribed on Hiroshige's print Between the Leaves, about 1832

Print label:

広重の中短冊花鳥図版画 
Hiroshige's chū-tanzaku (medium tanzaku) nature prints

Hiroshige's finest bird-and-flower prints have the tall, narrow format of the tanzaku, a strip of paper used to record poems. Many include a Chinese or Japanese poem. These chū-tanzaku (medium tanzaku) prints feature techniques developed for privately commissioned prints and illustrated books: gradation, embossing, engraving and over-printing.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)

朝顔にきりぎりす Cricket and morning glories, early 1830s
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh 2025,AFBMLoan.1.2

雪中の鶏 Cockerel in snow, early 1830s
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

月に木賊と兎 Rabbits and horsetail beneath the moon, early 1840s
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh 2024,AFBMLoan.1.1

芙蓉 Cotton rose, 1843–7

芥子に鶉 Quail and poppy, early 1830s

Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh
Colour woodblock prints

夜はいとど 
草のむしろに
露おきて
兎か妻も
寝つきかぬらん

河廼屋幸久 詠

As, throughout the night,
more and still more dew sprang up
on their horsetail mat,
the rabbit's missus likewise
could not remain long in bed.

Kawanoya Yukisa (active early 1840s)
Poem inscribed on Hiroshige's 'Rabbits and horsetail beneath the moon', early 1840s

Small panel on curved wall opposite:
京都と周辺の名所
Views of Kyoto and a famous scenic spot

Kyoto was home to the imperial family and the headquarters of many schools of Buddhism. Hiroshige's only major print series on the city followed the success of his first Tōkaidō series in around 1834. He shows ordinary people going about their daily lives in a quiet world far removed from crowded, bustling Edo. Several prints in the series draw on illustrations in Kyoto guidebooks, which Hiroshige transformed into visual poetry. In other series he explored Japan's natural scenic spots, such as the whirlpools of Naruto. 

Print labels:

六十余州名所図会 阿波 鳴門の風波
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) 
Awa: The Rough Seas at Naruto, 1855

The Naruto whirlpools are among the most famous of Japan's natural phenomena. Many artists have celebrated them, including Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), whose work may have inspired Hiroshige's dramatic composition, placing
the viewer in the middle of the action. The beautiful colour gradation gives the waves a three-dimensional appearance, creating the impression of a turbulent ocean.

From Illustrated Guide to Famous Places in the 60-odd Provinces, published by Koshimuraya Heisuke
Colour woodblock print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

図取は全く写真の風景 
にて遠足障なき人たち
一時の興に備ふるのみ。

歌川広重
『富士見百図』 自序

[My] drawings present completely true-to-life
landscapes to give people just a moment
of pleasure without the inconvenience of
a long journey.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), preface to One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, 1859

京都名所之内　通天橋紅楓
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Autumn Maples at Tsūten Bridge, about 1834

Friends gather to admire the autumn maple leaves. Others recite impromptu poems, which a younger man records on slips of poetry paper. The setting is Tōfukuji, a large temple. The shading on the bottom left indicates that this is among the earlier prints taken from the woodblock. Early versions are thought to be closer to Hiroshige’s original conception.

From Famous Places of Kyoto, published by Kawaguchiya Uhei
Colour woodblock print
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.27

京都名所之内　糺川原之夕立
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Sudden Shower over Tadasugawara, about 1834

People scurry for shelter as a sudden rainstorm catches them unawares. Thick and thin diagonal lines convey the intensity of the storm. Figures hurry across a rickety plank bridge spanning the Kamo River. They head towards the restaurants at Tadasugawara, an area known for its outdoor performances. Hiroshige contrasts the urgency of the people outside with the relaxed comfort of those indoors.

From Famous Places of Kyoto, published by Kawaguchiya Uhei
Colour woodblock print
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.21

京都名所之内　祇園社雪中
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Gion Shrine in the Snow, about 1834

On a snowy evening geiko (female entertainers) and a maiko (young entertainer-in-training), identified by her long sleeves, exchange greetings near the gate of Gion Shrine in central Kyoto. The shrine is famous for the lively Gion Festival, held in July to appease a deity of plague and epidemics. Hiroshige captures the shrine at a less frenetic time of year.

From Famous Places of Kyoto, published by Kawaguchiya Uhei
Colour woodblock print
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.19

京都名所之内 八瀬之里
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Yase Village, about 1834

Women laden with tools and bundles of charcoal descend from Yase village to Kyoto. While guidebooks and popular tales may have inspired this view of country life, Hiroshige probably created the spacious landscape from his imagination.

The sharp lines and dawn sky in shades of red-pink indicate that this is a first-edition print. The colour is exceptionally well preserved.

From Famous Places of Kyoto, published by Kawaguchiya Uhei
Colour woodblock print
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.23

京都名所之内　あらし山満花
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) 
In Full Bloom at Arashiyama, about 1834

Two raftsmen ride the gentle current of the Ōi River downstream to Kyoto, delivering timber to the city. While one steers, the other admires the falling cherry petals caught in a breeze. Hidden among the trees, figures stroll along a path. The unusual, high-angled viewpoint and partial view of the path create a scene that is both realistic and inventively abstract.

From Famous Places of Kyoto, published by Kawaguchiya Uhei
Colour woodblock print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh 

京都名所之内 四条川原夕涼
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) 
Enjoying the Evening Cool along the Shijō Riverbed, about 1834

For about two weeks in summer when the Kamo River dwindled to a stream, restaurants set up platforms in the riverbed. Here, one party enjoys the cool evening air. The man on the left appears to be performing a comical dance for his delighted companions.

Characteristic of his refined approach to landscape, Hiroshige treats Kyoto's eastern mountain range like a monochrome ink painting.

From Famous Places of Kyoto, published by Kawaguchiya Uhei
Colour woodblock print
Bequest of Charles Hazelwood Shannon
British Museum 1937,0710,0.260

Table-case labels:
Print label:

京都名所之内 嶋原出口之柳
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
The 'Exit Willow' at Shimabara (left), about 1834

At Shimabara, Kyoto's only licensed brothel district, a drunken customer staggers home supported by servants. A courtesan (female sex worker) and her attendants watch in amusement. Hiroshige adapted this design from an image in Illustrated Guide to the Famous Places of Kyoto (right). He lowered the viewpoint to involve the viewer in the moment. The famous 'Exit Willow' marked the main gate to the quarter.

From Famous Places of Kyoto, published by Kawaguchiya Uhei
Colour woodblock print
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.25

Book label:

竹原春朝斎 画 『都名所図会』 第二巻 嶋原
Takehara Shunchōsai (active 1772–1801)
Shimabara (right), 1786

From Illustrated Guide to the Famous Places of Kyoto, vol. 2, text by Akisato Ritō
Woodblock-printed illustrated book
Purchase funded by the Brooke Sewell Bequest
British Museum 2002,0815,0.1.2

Panel on wall to right:
夏風を誘う
Catching a summer breeze

In Edo-period Japan, warm weather brought a demand for inexpensive, hand-held fans that people could use and enjoy for a season and then discard. A popular type was the uchiwa, an oval fan on fixed ribs with a handle. Its design and production show the close link in the period between finely made objects and everyday use. Uchiwa fan prints were disposable and only a few examples of each design survive.

Modern specialists in ukiyo-e (Edo-period popular prints) have counted every known uchiwa design by Hiroshige and concluded that he produced well over 500, far more than any other artist. The subjects range from rustic and urban scenes to still life.

Wall-case labels:
Label for print and fan frame:

本牧海上之不二
団扇の骨

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Fuji from the Sea at Honmoku, 1849–52

Frame for an uchiwa fan, 2023

Although uchiwa prints could be enjoyed as pictures, they were usually pasted onto a frame of bamboo ribs for use as fans. A print with an elaborate design covered one side of the frame and there was a plainer design on the back. Fans were disposable, and the landscape print here is one of the few to have survived after mounting.

Published by Iseya Sōemon
Colour woodblock fan print
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh 2024,AFBMLoan.1.2

Uchiwa fan frame
Bamboo and cotton thread
British Museum

Label for scroll:

喜多川月麿 筆　団扇を持つ二美人
Kitagawa Tsukimaro (active 1794–1836)

Two women with uchiwa fans, about 1820

A geisha (female entertainer) flirtatiously fans herself with a red uchiwa fan, showing how an uchiwa might serve to stir romantic interest as well as a breeze. The geisha may have been called to entertain at a teahouse run by the woman behind her, whose blackened teeth indicate that she is married. Their elegant fans, set in gold mounts, may be expensive gifts from a patron.

Hanging scroll
Ink, colour and gold on silk
British Museum 1881,1210,0.2312

Label for book:

菱川師宣 画 『団扇絵づくし』 
Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–1694)
All Kinds of Uchiwa Fans, 1683

By the early 1600s, the painted fan had become both an indispensable accessory and a popular decoration pasted onto screens and sliding doors. The custom inspired this book by Hishikawa Moronobu, which uses fans to unify a series of unrelated stories. On the right a teacher and students perform chants from the Noh theatre. On the left a woman and a shrine maiden vie over a lover.

Woodblock-printed illustrated book
British Museum 1958,0510,0.2

Label for fans:

豪奢な小道具
Luxury accessories

Japanese aristocrats have used uchiwa fans since at least the AD 700s. 

Plain at first, by the 1100s they were decorated with paintings. From the late 1500s they were made of paper pasted onto bamboo ribs.

These uchiwa, created over a century apart, are examples of both artistry and fine craftwork. The upper fan is a riot of spring plants in skilfully blended tones. The lower fan's polished gold lacquer suggests mist in a garden, where a court lady and attendant admire peonies.

谷口香嶠 筆　春草　
Taniguchi Kōkyō (1864–1915)
Spring plants, about 1910 (above)
Uchiwa fan
Ink, gold, silver and colours on paper
British Museum 1992,0625,0.2

中尾 筆　牡丹に官女
Nakao (active about 1700s–1800s)
Two court ladies viewing a peony garden, 1700–1900 (below)
Uchiwa fan
Lacquer and gold on paper
Gift of Miss Bruce
British Museum 1929,0731,0.31

Print labels (right to left):

東都名所 道灌山虫聞之図
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Listening to the Insects at Dōkan Hill, about 1840

On a summer or early-autumn evening, a family enjoys the sound of insects at Dōkan Hill, a popular area north of Edo. A mother and daughter hold uchiwa fans, while a younger child shows off the crickets she has caught. Three men share sake and watch the rising moon. One holds an uchiwa, suggesting that this type of fan was used by both men and women.

From Famous Places in the Eastern Capital, published by Sanoya Kihei
Colour woodblock print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

東都名所 両国夕すずみ
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Evening Cool at Ryōgoku, about 1847–8

As the breeze picks up on the night of a full moon, three women stroll along the embankment of the Sumida River. One woman clutches an uchiwa fan in her teeth as she pauses to adjust her sash. Behind them, boats fill the river and crowds throng Ryōgoku Bridge, the centre of pleasure boating and fireworks in Edo during the summer.

From Famous Places in the Eastern Capital
Published by Wakasaya Yoichi
Colour woodblock print triptych
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh 2025,AFBMLoan.1.9

品川汐干
Low tide at Shinagawa

Waterside activities were a popular subject for uchiwa fans. During the first three days of the 3rd month of every year, crowds would arrive at Shinagawa Bay to gather shellfish at low tide. Hiroshige based the scene on this triptych on his earlier fan print. He added more social groups and humorous touches like the man helping a friend who has slipped in the mud.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
品川汐干
Low Tide at Shinagawa, 1847–52 (right)
Published by Mikawaya Heiroku
Colour woodblock fan print

品川汐干の図
Low Tide at Shinagawa, 1855 (left)
Published by Yamadaya Shōjirō
Colour woodblock print triptych

Gifts from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.16; 1.11

箱根七湯
The seven hot springs at Hakone 

The fan publisher Ibaya Senzaburō commissioned these two fan prints. He capitalised on the popularity of Hiroshige's landscapes, Utagawa Kunisada's depictions of actors and bijin (beautiful women), and Hakone's seven hot springs. The figure in the bottom fan print is the kabuki theatre actor Iwai Kumesaburō III, who specialised in female roles.

双筆七湯巡り 木賀　歌川国貞（人物） 歌川広重（風景）画
Figure: Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1864); landscape: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Kiga, 1854 (above)

双筆七湯巡り 塔の沢
Tōnosawa, 1854 (below)

From A Tour of Seven Hot Springs by Two Brushes
Colour woodblock fan prints
Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh

はこね谷川之図 温泉湯亭の図
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Valley Stream in Hakone: View of an Inn at the Hot Spring, 1851

After his attention shifted to landscapes in the early 1830s, Hiroshige did not return to depicting bijin (beautiful women) for more than a decade. As government censorship restrictions started to ease in the late 1840s, he began designing bijin triptychs. Here, on a veranda overlooking the Haya River in Hakone, two women watch a third heading for the baths.

From All the Rivers along the Tōkaidō
Published by Fujiokaya Keijirō
Colour woodblock print triptych
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.10

富士に音止めの滝 
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Mount Fuji and the Otodome Fall, about 1847–8

Wrapped in mist, Mount Fuji rises behind the Otodome (Muffled) Fall. Two thatched roofs peek over a grassy slope. Popular lore connects the fall with the warrior brothers Soga Jūrō Sukenari and Soga Gorō Tokimune. They are said to have prayed for the gods to muffle its sound so they could plan to avenge their father's murder.

Published by Maruya Seijirō
Colour woodblock fan print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

杉田の楳園 
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Plum Garden at Sugita, about 1851–2

Two women pause at a hilltop teahouse to enjoy a view of Mount Fuji through the branches of blossoming plum trees. The misty spring air turns bright pink in the rising sun. The Sugita plum garden was an easy day trip south-west of Edo. Hiroshige concentrates on the delights of escape from the city, rather than showing the crowds.

Colour woodblock fan print
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.13

紺青（ベロ藍）
Bero-ai (Prussian blue)

The synthetic pigment Prussian blue was invented in Germany and first imported to Japan in the early 1760s. In the 1820s, mass-production of Prussian blue in China made it cheap enough for Japanese publishers to use in commercial woodblock prints. The blue is more vivid and versatile than natural pigments and does not fade. It could be printed to look like washes of ink, making it ideal for landscapes. Its popularity led to the development of works printed almost entirely in blue, known as aizuri-e.

紺青の人物画 
Figures in blue

Hiroshige used Prussian blue to depict figures as well as landscapes. Above, a raftsman takes in the view of a shrine gate silhouetted against a moonlit sky. The print has the quality of an ink painting, capturing Hiroshige's brushstrokes. The bottom print depicts the legend of the poet Ono no Komachi (AD 825–900), whose poem praying for the end of a drought caused rain to fall.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
三囲付近 隅田川に掉さす筏乗り
Raftsman poling logs on the Sumida River near Mimeguri, mid-1840s
Published by Surugaya Sakujirō

雨乞い小町
Ono no Komachi prays for rain, 1830s
Published by Ibaya Senzaburō

Colour woodblock fan prints
Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh

青樓花見略図 
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Sketch of a Yoshiwara Flower-viewing Party, late 1840s–50s

This print is an example of an ōgi (folding fan). It shows a procession from the Yoshiwara brothel district. A brothel owner leads (far left), followed by apprentice courtesans (female sex workers), manservants, guests and others. The understated
colour and thick paper suggest it was a privately commissioned print. Hiroshige made skilful use of a difficult format.

Colour woodblock fan print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

相模風景
Views of Sagami Province 

The tourist and pilgrimage destinations in Sagami Province were within easy reach of Edo. Hiroshige saw the hot springs of Tōnosawa depicted in the upper fan on a trip. The fan below shows the pilgrimage site of Rōben Waterfall at Ōyama.

Gradation and monochrome Prussian blue give Hiroshige's depictions of coastal areas, streams and waterfalls a cool elegance.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
箱根塔の澤湯場

Tōnosawa Hot Spring in Hakone, 1855
相州大山大瀧

The Great Waterfall at Ōyama, Sagami Province, 1855

Published by Maruya Jinpachi
Colour woodblock fan prints
Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh

Image caption:

Tōnosawa, from Hiroshige's Model Paintings of Musashi and Sagami Provinces, 1853, a handscroll based on his sketches of the area.

Image © Hiraki Ukiyo-e Foundation

Labels in central table case (right to left):

江戸名所 雪月花 
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Snow, Moon and Cherry Blossoms, about 1849–51

Hiroshige's fan prints often link everyday subjects with themes from high culture. These three fans connect views of Yoshiwara, Edo's only licensed brothel district, with a set classical trio of nature motifs. In the snow scene (left), two geisha (female entertainers) stroll along Yoshiwara's main street. The moon print (right) shows two geisha chatting with a courtesan. In the cherry blossoms print (far right), courtesans call to customers from the upper floor of a restaurant.

From Famous Places of Edo
Published by Ibaya Senzaburō
Colour woodblock fan prints
Gifts from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2024,AFBMLoan.1.3–5 

Other side of table case (right to left):

表裏駅路八景 より 
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Two prints from Eight Views of the Main and Secondary Roads

The Tōkaidō followed the Pacific coastline. The Kisokaidō passed through the opposite side of the mountains now called the Japanese Alps. This geography inspired Hiroshige to design eight colourful Tōkaidō prints to decorate the front of uchiwa fans and eight simpler Kisokaidō prints to cover the back. These two prints show the busy Tōkaidō post towns of Kanagawa and Miya.

東海道秋月 武州金川台之図
Tōkaidō Autumn Moon: Kanagawa Heights, Musashi Province, about 1839 (left)

東海道夜雨 尾州熱田海浜之図
Tōkaidō Night Rain: The Coast at Atsuta, Owari Province, about 1839 (right)

Published by Ibaya Senzaburō
Colour woodblock fan prints
Loans from the collection of Alan Medaugh

桃に竹の子
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Bamboo shoot and sprig of peach blossoms, about 1849–52

Hiroshige's fan prints included still lifes, such as this one of spring delicacies. Roughly square-shaped fans were used in food preparation, for example to cool sushi rice or disperse smoke, but this print is too fine for kitchen use. Perhaps it was meant to conjure the world of fine dining or was commissioned by a restaurant as a gift for patrons.

Published by Mikawaya Heiroku
Colour woodblock fan print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

Small panel on curved wall opposite:
木曽街道 京都から江戸へ
From Kyoto to Edo along the Kisokaidō

The Kisokaidō (Kiso highway, also called the Nakasendō or Central Mountain Road) took travellers on a difficult journey through the mountain ranges north-west of Edo, today called the Japanese Alps. Steep passes and heart-stopping suspension bridges made it an adventurous route through sixty-nine stations connecting Kyoto and Edo. Hiroshige depicted the highway in only one major series, which he took over from another artist. His prints are displayed here in the order a traveller would encounter the stations going from Kyoto to Edo. 

木曾街道六拾九次之内 垂井
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Tarui, late 1830s

Midway through designing this series, Hiroshige left for a sketching trip along the Kisokaidō. His sketch of Tarui only shows the buildings of the station. For this print, he added a samurai lord arriving in drizzling rain. The head of the station leads him and his entourage to their private inn. They pass teahouses decorated with colour woodblock prints.

From The 69 Stations of the Kiso Highway, published by Iseya Rihei
Colour woodblock print
Gift of Sir Hickman Bacon
British Museum 1907,0531,0.189 

木曾街道六拾九次之内 洗馬
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Seba, late 1830s

Hiroshige designed this scene before his sketching trip along the Kisokaidō, using his imagination to express the wild character of the region. Most prints in the series show the road itself, but here it is merely suggested by the rooftops. Hiroshige concentrates on the lives of local villagers working in harmony with nature as they drift down the gentle Narai River.

From The 69 Stations of the Kiso Highway, published by Iseya Rihei
Colour woodblock print
British Museum 1906,1220,0.933

木曾街道六拾九次之内 長久保
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Nagakubo, late 1830s

Local boys play with their dogs. A driver leads his weary packhorse to the stable after many trips between Nagakubo and neighbouring post stations. A first edition, this print is considered closer to the artist's original conception. Later editions omit the blue haze surrounding the moon and insert a mountain range behind the bridge and silhouetted travellers.

From The 69 Stations of the Kiso Highway, published by Iseya Rihei
Colour woodblock print
Bequest of Oscar Charles Raphael
British Museum 1945,1101,0.35

木曾街道六拾九次之内 軽井沢
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Karuizawa, late 1830s

A hard-working trader, his servant and a packhorse driver make a late arrival at a post station. The servant lights his own pipe at a bonfire, while the driver tends to the trader's pipe. Hiroshige illuminates the green leaves of the tree with a shaft of firelight. A lantern reveals the trader's clothes and face.

From The 69 Stations of the Kiso Highway, published by Takenouchi Magohachi and Iseya Rihei
Colour woodblock print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh 

Table-case label:

西邨中和 画 『木曽路名所図会』
第三巻 妻籠・馬籠
Nishimura Chūwa (active 1790s)
Tsumago to Magome, 1850, first published in 1805

From Illustrated Guide to Famous Places along the Kiso Highway, vol. 3, text by Akisato Ritō
Woodblock-printed illustrated book
From the British Library Collection: ORB.30/3382, vol. 3

Print label:

木曽路之山川
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Mountains and Streams of the Kiso Highway, 1857 

The Kisokaidō crossed some of Japan's most awe-inspiring scenery. Starting on a cliff-side (far right), the road crosses a plank bridge, ascends a gorge, crosses behind mountains and descends through a village before crossing another bridge (far left) and heading onwards. Hiroshige based the right-hand sheet on a picture in the Illustrated Guide to Famous Places along the Kiso Highway (1805), displayed nearby.

Published by Okazawaya Taheiji
Colour woodblock print triptych
British Museum 1910,0418,0.197.1-3

Image label:

Hiroshige based the river in his triptych on another image from the Illustrated Guide to Famous Places along the Kiso Highway, 1805.

Image © From the British Library collection:
ORB.30/3382, vol. 3

Small panel on right-hand wall:
江戸
Edo

Edo (present-day Tokyo) was the base of the Tokugawa government during the Edo period (1615–1868). From around 1700 it had a population of over one million people. Samurai lords travelled to the city, accompanied by hundreds of servants, to honour the shogun and catch up on the latest trends in politics and culture. Luxury goods and fine dining catered to their needs and those of wealthy merchants. Hiroshige celebrated his prosperous hometown in more than 150 print series. 

Print label:

女行烈 高輪之図
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Female Processions: The View at Takanawa, 1830s

Many processions of high-ranking samurai lords approached Edo along the coastal promenade at Takanawa. Unusually, Hiroshige here depicts samurai women. The double family crests throughout the design suggest that the young woman seated in the sedan chair (centre sheet) is a bride joining her husband's family in Edo.

Published by Sanoya Kihei
Colour woodblock print triptych
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh 2025,AFBMLoan.1.8

Wall-case labels:

待乳山・今戸橋図
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
View of Mount Matsuchi and Imado Bridge, late 1840s–50s
Mount Matsuchi, 1848

Pleasure-seekers on their way to the Yoshiwara brothel district passed through a boatyard at the foot of Mount Matsuchi. Characters in Hiroshige's signature on the hanging-scroll painting read 'done on the spot', suggesting that he painted it impromptu at a party. Hiroshige was unusually skilled at improvised painting. Starting at the bottom and working his way up, he finally revealed the subject at the end.

A similar composition in one of his sketchbooks shows how consistent his delicate and confident brushwork was across different media.

Hanging scroll, ink on paper
The Jeffrey & Ooi Thye Pollard Collection

Sketchbook, ink on paper
Gift of Sir William Gwynne-Evans, Bt
British Museum 1913,0501,0.294

Small panel on opposite wall:
名所江戸百景 
One Hundred Famous Views of Edo

Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (1856–8) brought new energy to views of the shogun's city, Edo. The series covered every neighbourhood, including areas that were not especially famous. Hiroshige experimented with bold, vertical compositions, juxtaposing a close-up object in the foreground with a distant landscape. These luxurious, richly coloured prints were made with high-quality printing techniques – engraving, ground mica powder, overprinting and gradation.

Recent research suggests that the series may have helped to inspire the residents of Edo to rebuild their city after the 1855 Ansei Edo Earthquake.

Wall quote:

常に山水のけしきを好み 又安政三辰の年より
江戸百景をかゝれ、目の 前に其けしきを見る如く。
広重の死絵　天明老人著
安政五年

He always had a fondness for mountain and river scenery, and then from 1856 drew the One Hundred Views of Edo, which seem to place the landscapes before our very eyes.

Tenmei Rōjin (1781–1861), Japanese poet, from Hiroshige's memorial portrait, 1858

Print label:

名所江戸百景 水道橋駿河台
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Suidō Bridge and Surugadai, intercalary (additional) 5th month, 1857

An enormous black carp appears to leap into the air high above the samurai neighbourhood of Surugadai in Edo. In popular East Asian belief, if a carp reaches the top of a waterfall it turns into a dragon, symbolising hard work leading to success. People in Edo displayed koi-nobori (carp banners) like this during the Boys' Day Festival (5th day of the 5th month, now called Children's Day).

From One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, published by Sakanaya Eikichi
Colour woodblock print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh
Ex collection Arthur Wesley Dow

Print labels:

名所江戸百景　深川州崎十万坪
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
10,000 League Plain of Susaki at Fukagawa, intercalary (additional) 5th month, 1857

A hungry eagle wheels mid-flight, spotting a tasty morsel in a drifting bucket. The desolate landscape stretches northward to Mount Tsukuba, an Edo landmark. Apart from the bucket, the only signs of human life are the rooftops and lumber yard of Fukagawa. The dynamic juxtaposition of the large bird and distant landscape is typical of Hiroshige's inventive approach in this series.

From One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, published by Sakanaya Eikichi
Colour woodblock print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

名所江戸百景　深川木場
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Fukagawa Lumber Yards, 8th month, 1856

In this series Hiroshige experimented with eye-level subjects and European one-point perspective, drawing us into the scene. The bright yellow umbrella makes a striking contrast with the blue canal. Together with the red of the title and cartouches (small panels with writing), the white snow and black lines, it completes the five East Asian primary colours.

From One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, published by Sakanaya Eikichi
Colour woodblock print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

名所江戸百景 王子装束ゑの木大晦日の狐火
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Foxfires on New Year's Eve at the Formal-dress Hackberry Tree in Ōji, 9th month, 1857

Spirit foxes of the rice god Inari gather on New Year's Eve to worship at eastern Japan's main Inari shrine at Ōji in Edo. Their breath turns to foxfire in the winter air, a clue to their other-worldly nature. Hiroshige depicts this mysterious scene, the foxes and the hill where the shrine is located, from above.

From One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, published by Sakanaya Eikichi
Colour woodblock print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh

名所江戸百景 飛鳥山北の眺望
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) 
View from Asuka Hill, 5th month, 1856

Families and friends enjoy the open air at Asuka Hill, one of Edo's famous spots for viewing cherry blossoms and a favourite day-trip destination. The combination of viewpoints, typical of East Asian landscape painting, may have seemed unexpectedly
traditional to Hiroshige's contemporaries. The eye looks down to the picnics, across to the rice fields, and up to the far-distant twin peaks of Mount Tsukuba. 

From One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, published by Sakanaya Eikichi
Colour woodblock print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh
Ex collection Arthur Wesley Dow

名所江戸百景 大はしあたけの夕立
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) 
Sudden Shower over Ōhashi and Atake, 9th month, 1857

A downpour sends figures scurrying. This first edition print includes two boats silhouetted by the shore (upper right). The light mark under the bridge, a block cutter's error, was corrected in later versions. Hiroshige combines three viewpoints: looking down to the bridge, across the river and up to the storm clouds. Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) copied an impression of this print in oils.

From One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, published by Sakanaya Eikichi
Colour woodblock print
Gift of Henry Bergen
British Museum 1948,0508,0.5

Image caption:

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), Bridge in the Rain (after Hiroshige), October–November 1887, oil on canvas.

Image © Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
(Vincent van Gogh Foundation) s0114V1962/ F0372

Small panel:
亀戸梅屋舗　図様の時間的変化
The history of a print design

During the Edo period (1615–1868), woodblock prints met the demand from an expanding audience for inexpensive art. Hiroshige's most popular designs may have been printed up to 15,000 times before the woodblocks wore down completely.

British Museum scientists have been studying the history of some of Hiroshige's best-known designs, from early to late editions. Using digital microscopy, X-ray fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy, they analyse pigments and look for evidence of fading. 

Film label:

「亀戸梅屋舗」 を詳査(しょうさ)する
A closer look at Hiroshige's Plum Garden at Kameido

Capucine Korenberg, scientist at the British Museum, discusses her work on the different versions of Hiroshige's Plum Garden at Kameido prints.

The film is two minutes long and has no sound.

Print labels:

名所江戸百景 亀戸梅屋舗
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
The Plum Garden at Kameido, 1857 (first edition)

As the sun lifts above the horizon on a spring morning, the misty air lights up a brilliant reddish pink. In a beautiful display of the printer's art, the vibrant colour gradation envelops the early risers visiting the famous plum garden at Kameido. Hiroshige's use of an enlarged tree and distant landscape gives the viewer a privileged vantage point, unavailable to those visiting the garden.

From One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, published by Sakanaya Eikichi
Colour woodblock print
Loan from the collection of Alan Medaugh
Ex collection Arthur Wesley Dow

名所江戸百景 亀戸梅屋舗
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
The Plum Garden at Kameido, 1857

Vincent van Gogh bought this faded, later edition of Hiroshige's print around 1887 from the Paris dealer Siegfried Bing. The purple-blue band across the top, absence of blue-green pools in the grass and flatter treatment of the branches distinguish it from the first edition. Van Gogh traced this print to make his oil copy but based his colours on an unidentified first edition.

From One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, published by Sakanaya Eikichi
Colour woodblock print
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
(Vincent van Gogh Foundation) n0077V1962 

Drawing label:

フィンセント・ファン・ゴッホ筆 亀戸梅屋舗敷写
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)
Tracing of The Plum Garden at Kameido, about 1887

Van Gogh meticulously traced his example of Hiroshige's print on a numbered grid. He used this to enlarge the composition to scale onto the canvas for his oil copy. The band of diagonal marks in row 19 corresponds to the area in Hiroshige's design where pink grades into white. In the finished painting Van Gogh transformed this area into a display of white plum blossoms.

Pencil, pen and ink on paper
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
(Vincent van Gogh Foundation) d0772V1962

Image caption:

Vincent van Gogh, Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige), October – November 1887, oil on canvas.

Image © Collection of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
(Vincent van Gogh Foundation) s0115V1962/F0371

Panel on opposite wall:
広重の残響
Hiroshige's legacy

As Hiroshige's fame grew, so did his studio and collaborations with fellow artists of the Utagawa school. After his death in 1858, European and American artists and collectors admired Hiroshige's prints as part of the nineteenth-century movement known as Japonisme. For artists in Japan and around the globe today, Hiroshige's work is a living legacy. It continues to inspire new ways of looking at, thinking about and depicting daily life, and the world in which we live.

Print label:

歌川広重 歌川国貞 双画　風流源氏 雪の眺
Figures: Utagawa Kunisada (1786–1864); landscape: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858)
Snow Scene, 1853

From the mid-1840s, Hiroshige collaborated with Kunisada on various print series. Each artist contributed his strength to the designs: Kunisada the figures and Hiroshige the landscapes. Their partnership continued across projects for several different publishers, suggesting that the two artists may have been friends. Kunisada also designed Hiroshige's memorial portrait.

From Elegant Genji, published by Iseya Kanekichi
Colour woodblock print triptych
Gift from the collection of Alan Medaugh
2025,AFBMLoan.1.6

東路へ
筆をのこして
旅のそら
西のみ国の
名ところを見ん

歌川広重 辞世

I entrust my brush
to that highway heading east,
and seek journey's end
in the celebrated sights
of a pure land in the west.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), poem written on his deathbed, 1858

Table-case label:

歌川広重 筆　スケッチ帖 
Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Sketchbook, late 1830s

Hiroshige bequeathed his sketchbooks and painting tools to his students, but did not specify how they should be divided. This sketchbook may have gone to his pupil Hiroshige II, who based his print of Nunobiki Waterfall (alongside) on the lefthand drawing. The sketches in this book show the diversity of Hiroshige's journeys and interests. 

Sketchbook, ink on paper
Gift of Sir William Gwynne-Evans, Bt
British Museum 1913,0501,0.291

Print label:

二代歌川広重 画　諸国名所百景 摂州布引之滝
Utagawa Hiroshige II (1826–1869)
Nunobiki Waterfall in Settsu Province, 5th month, 1859

Hiroshige remembered his students in his will but named only his 'long-time aide' Shigenobu, who started calling himself Hiroshige II in 1859. Hiroshige II carried the master's style and approach to composition into the next generation. He based this print on a sketch of Nunobiki Waterfall found in one of Hiroshige's sketchbooks (displayed on the right).

From One Hundred Views of Famous Places in the Provinces, published by Sakanaya Eikichi
Colour woodblock print
British Museum 1915,0823,0.329.19

Label for scrolls:

三代歌川広重 筆　隅田川花見 両国船遊び
Utagawa Hiroshige III (1842–1894)
Cherry-blossom viewing on the Sumida River (right); Boating near Ryōgoku Bridge (left), 1860s–early 90s

These views look across the Sumida River to Mount Fuji. On the right, two geisha arrive at a shrine, with Asakusa Kannon Temple on the opposite shore. On the left, two geisha board a pleasure boat near Ryōgoku Bridge. Hiroshige III based the right-hand composition on a print that his teacher Hiroshige designed in 1851, although it was not published until 1859. 

Pair of hanging scrolls
Ink and colour on silk
Gift of Sir William Gwynne-Evans, Bt
British Museum 1913,0501,0.298 (right);
1913,0501,0.299 (left)

Image caption:

The Sumida Embankment in the Eastern Capital from Hiroshige's 36 Views of Mount Fuji, designed 1851, published 1859, colour woodblock print.

Image © The Trustees of the British Museum

Print labels:

小林清親 画　東京新大橋雨中図 
Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847–1915)
Shin-Ōhashi Bridge, Tokyo, in the Rain, 1876

Kiyochika's view of Shin-Ōhashi bridge shares the timeless quality of Hiroshige's depiction in the series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. However, Kiyochika shows the bridge from a different angle and after the storm has passed. The parting storm clouds and brightening surface of the water show Kiyochika's interest in changing light.

Colour woodblock print
Bequest of Thomas Bates Blow
British Museum 1941,0208,0.11

川瀬巴水 画　馬入川 
Kawase Hasui (1883–1957)
Banyū River, 1931

Widely regarded as Hiroshige's main successor in the modern period, Kawase Hasui here depicts the Banyū River, formerly one of the major river crossings along the Tōkaidō. A lone transport vessel seems to emphasise how far this stretch of highway had returned to a state of nature. The design closely follows a sketch Hasui made at the location in January 1931.

From Selected Views Along the Tōkaidō, published by Watanabe Shōzaburō
Colour woodblock print
Bequest of Arthur Morrison
British Museum 1946,0209,0.72

野田哲也 作 
Noda Tetsuya (born 1940)
Diary: Feb. 23rd '02, in London, 2002

In February 2002, Noda Tetsuya stood on the balcony of Tate Modern overlooking the Thames and Millennium Bridge. He was struck by the similarity between that view and Hiroshige's print, Sudden Shower over Ōhashi and Atake. Noda felt the power of Hiroshige's imagination in devising a view of Edo from a dizzying vantage point almost certainly unavailable at the time.

Silkscreen and colour woodblock print
Gift of the artist
British Museum 2007,3006.5

Table-case labels (right to left):

森井春窓 撮影　渡口の蒙雨 
Morii Shunsō (active about 1900)
Ferry-crossing in Dark, Drizzling Rain, 1903
A ferry takes a passenger across a river in drizzling rain.

This photograph shares many qualities with Hiroshige's prints, from the misty atmosphere to the gradation across layered hills. It reveals the degree to which, almost 50 years after his death, Hiroshige's work had come to shape how Japanese people perceived the landscape of Japan.

Photobook
British Museum 2008,3035.168

A.W.ダウ 著 『作画について』  
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922)
Composition, 12th edition, 1924; first published 1899

The American artist and educator Arthur Wesley Dow valued skill in composition above the imitation of life, a radical perspective at the turn of the century. Dow shared his ideas in this art manual, which includes a tracing of a print by Hiroshige, whose work he also collected. Dow placed the tracing near one of Whistler's Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Old Battersea Bridge (about 1872–5).

From the British Library Collection: LB.31.b.16361.

Image caption:

J.A.M. Whistler, Nocturne: Blue and Gold—Old Battersea Bridge, about 1872–5, oil on
canvas. Tate. Presented by the Art Fund 1905.

Photo: Tate

Drawing label:

フィンセント・ファン・ゴッホ 筆
モンマジュールから見たローヌ川沿いの田野
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890)
The Countryside along the Shore of the Rhône Seen from Montmajour, 1888

In 1887, Van Gogh and his brother Theo purchased over 400 Japanese colour woodblock prints, including Hiroshige's Sudden Rain over Ōhashi and Atake. Van Gogh copied that print in oil paint. The exercise perhaps underscored the potential for combining multiple viewpoints in one picture, an approach he used in this drawing. A non-European technique endows this landscape with a sense of sweeping depth.

Drawing, reed and quill pen and brown ink over black chalk and graphite
Bequest of César Mange de Hauke
British Museum 1968,0210.20

… an immense flat expanse of country
– seen in bird's eye view from the top of a hill
… streaming away like the surface of a sea
towards the horizon … It does not appear
Japanese, and yet it is the most Japanese
thing I've ever made.

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) on The Countryside along the Shore of the Rhône in a letter to Émile Bernard, 15 July 1888

Print labels:

ジュリアン・オピー 画　日本八景
Julian Opie (born 1958) 
Japanese Landscapes, 2009

Opie, who has called Hiroshige his 'artistic hero', photographed the landscape around Mount Fuji, following a route that Hiroshige may have travelled. Here, through lenticular printing, he solves perhaps the central challenge of how to conjure a sense of depth and movement in a two-dimensional surface. Opie produces a sense of layered spatial recession very much in the spirit of Hiroshige's landscapes.

Lenticular, 3D-motion postcards
Purchases made possible by the JTI Japanese Acquisition Fund
British Museum 2024,3019.2–5 

H.ド・トゥールーズ・ロートレック 画
５４室の旅客
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901)
The Passenger in 54, 1895 

Hiroshige's bold compositions have inspired European artists since the late 1800s. Toulouse-Lautrec, for example, may have been thinking of the Japanese artist's contrasts between a large foreground detail and a distant landscape when he made The Passenger in 54. The title refers to a woman on a cruise ship with whom Lautrec was infatuated, although she paid him no attention.

Lithographic print with brushed, crayoned and spattered colour
Gift of Campbell Dodgson
British Museum 1914,0324.6

エミール・オルリック 画　東京下町の運河
Emil Orlik (1870–1932) 
Waterway in Tokyo, 1900

Prague-born artist Emil Orlik drew on Hiroshige's serene way of presenting the world around him. The location of this waterway in Tokyo is uncertain. Orlik's fascination with the various buildings, boats and people, and the settled mood, recall Hiroshige's vertical views of Edo. This is one of ten views that Orlik produced during a ten-month stay in Tokyo.

Printed by the Koshiba Lithography Workshop
Lithographic print
Bequest of Campbell Dodgson
British Museum 1951,0501.88

Wall quote:

大きな社会変革の時期に、広重が日常生活を
活写したことは、時と文化を超えて、画家で
ある私に語りかけてきます。

エミリー・オールチャーチ 画家２０２５

Hiroshige's capturing of everyday life in
a period of huge social change speaks to me
as an artist across time and culture.

Emily Allchurch (born 1974), British artist, 2025

Animation label:

Duration: 1 minute 30 seconds

This animation has no sound. 

Small panel:
画家たちと広重の対話 
Artists in dialogue with Hiroshige

Since the late 1800s, artists in Europe, the US and Japan have engaged in a continual artistic dialogue with Hiroshige, studying and responding to his work. Some have adopted his quiet approach to everyday scenery. Others have explored his favoured techniques, especially gradation. Hiroshige's influence is felt by artists working in a range of media, from traditional woodblock printing to modern digital technology. Almost two centuries after his death, Hiroshige continues to suggest ways for artists to articulate contemporary concerns and aspirations. 

Labels:

アベ・コヤ作　洗馬にならって 
Koya Abe (born 1964)
After Seba, 2011–13

Koya Abe digitally altered Hiroshige's print Seba to convey the destruction caused by the Great Tōhoku Earthquake on 11 March 2011. The boatmen, village and willows have vanished, but the landscape endures.

Abe finds in Hiroshige's art, 'discipline, restraint, and purity. He engages with nature, people and society in a way that is understated, but attentive.'

From Digital Art Chapter 6: Animism, photographic inkjet print
Purchase made possible by the JTI Japanese Acquisition Fund
British Museum 2015,3048.18 

Image caption:

Seba from Hiroshige's The 69 Stations of the Kiso Highway, late 1830s, colour woodblock print.

Image © The Trustees of the British Museum

F.M.フレッチャー 作　牧場を流れる川
Frank Morley Fletcher (1866–1949) 
River between meadows, late 1890s–1930s

Frank Morley Fletcher offers an idyllic view of the English countryside in a composition recalling Seba from the 69 Stations of the Kiso Highway. Unlike Hiroshige, however, Fletcher cut the woodblocks and did the printing himself.

Colour woodblock print
Bequest of Campbell Dodgson
British Museum 1949,0411.938

広重への応え様々 
Differing responses to Hiroshige's work

Yoshida (below) sought the timeless quality of Hiroshige's work. Here he shows the Iida moat on a frosty spring day, with workmen loading a storehouse and a family returning home.

Yoshida's student Brayer uses gradation, one of Hiroshige's signature techniques, to depict mist moving over the Kamo River in Kyoto.

サラ・ブレイヤー 作　京都 川霧
Sarah Brayer (born 1957)
River Mist, Kyoto, 1982
Gift of the artist
British Museum 1985,1219,0.1

吉田遠志 画　昼の東京　飯田橋
Yoshida Tōshi (1911–1995)
Iidabashi from Tokyo by Day, 1939
British Museum 1984,0517,0.5.d

Colour woodblock prints

E.オールチャーチ 画　春祭り
Emily Allchurch (born 1974)
Spring Festival (after Hiroshige), 2020

Emily Allchurch digitally collaged hundreds of her photographs of Japan to create new interpretations of prints from Hiroshige's series, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. She has remarked, 'The immediacy of Hiroshige's vertical compositions, and his simplicity of line and colour, were a challenge I was keen to transpose into my own re-imaginings of 21st century Tokyo.'

From Tokyo Story
Archival pigment print
Purchase made possible by the JTI Japanese Acquisition Fund
British Museum 2025,3007.6

Image caption:

Suidō Bridge and Surugadai from Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, 1857, colour woodblock print.

Image © Alan Medaugh. Photo: Matsuba Ryōko

Supported by
Zemen Paulos and Jack Ryan

With further support from
Toshiba International Foundation
The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation

The British Museum is grateful to Mr Alan Medaugh for his generous contribution of Hiroshige prints gifted to the American Friends of the British Museum and for his additional support. 

The Trustees of the British Museum also wish to thank the following for their support and assistance in the creation of the exhibition.

Lenders
Alan Medaugh
American Friends of the British Museum
The British Library
Elizabeth Coombs
The Ebi Collection
Kusunoki Kyoko
Dr Ooi Thye Chong
Rebecca Salter CBE
Tate
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation)

The curators would like to thank Asano Shūgō, Timothy Clark, Israel Goldman, Barbara Medaugh and Dr Ellis Tinios for their help during the development of the exhibition.

All exhibition services unless otherwise credited British Museum
Lighting design Michael Grubb Studio
Film design Screensize Films
Sound design Rg Sound
VFX Projection design Little Shadow
Construction MER Services Ltd

Graphic production Praxis Ltd
Cost management and CDM advice Fraser Randall Ltd
Fine art transport Crown Fine Art
Book cradles Colin Lindley

The Trustees would like to extend their thanks to the British Museum staff involved in the making of the exhibition.

Except where stated all images © The Trustees of the British Museum

Animations
Emily Allchurch, Spring Festival (after Hiroshige) from Tokyo Story. Image © Emily Allchurch 2024; Sarah Brayer, River Mist, Kyoto; Koya Abe, After Seba from Digital Art Chapter Six: Animism; Noda Tetsuya, Diary: Feb. 23rd '02, in London.
All works reproduced by permission of the artist.

'The bokashi technique' film
Hiroko Imada

'Cutting a woodblock' film
Film © S. Watanabe Color Print Co.

'A closer look at Hiroshige's Plum Garden at Kameido' film
Hiroshige, The Plum Garden at Kameido from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. Image © Alan Medaugh. Photo: Matsuba Ryōko; Hiroshige, The Plum Garden at Kameido from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo owned by Vincent van Gogh. Image © Collection of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation); Van Gogh, Tracing of The Plum Garden at Kameido. Image © Collection of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation); Van Gogh, Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige). Image © Collection of the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Foundation) 

Japanese nature sounds
Hide Aoki; Miduno（ミヅノ); Tsurumi Ryokuchi; Rutger Muller; Taira Komori; Ryo Nishikawa; Hiromi Kuroiwa; Alex Speller; Benedict Sanderson; Kensuke Matsui; Thomas Rex Beverly; Felix Blume; Marcel Gnauk; Angel Perez Grandi; John Leonard; Robin Green; Steve Falcon; Marijn Jongewaard; Soundly; BBC; Digiffects; Articulated sounds; Sound ideas; Studiobox fx; Sound control se; Ambient isolation global sound project; Steve Whetman; Crowdsource fx; Julien Sacha; Peter Jeffels; Geoff-Bremner; Pillonoise; Kinoton; Szelestamas; Urkki69; Dobroide; Thomas Ryder Payne; Nature Notes

This exhibition has been made possible as a result of the Government Indemnity Scheme. The British Museum would like to thank HM Government for providing Government Indemnity and the Department for Culture, Media & Sport and Arts Council England for arranging the indemnity.

As part of the Museum's efforts to lessen its environmental impact, materials, fittings and equipment are reused where possible. The Museum aims to make its exhibitions as sustainable as possible, sharing best practice, resources and the latest innovations with other museums and galleries.

The Museum has endeavoured to obtain consent from the rights holders of all content used in the exhibition. If you have concerns that any content has been used in the exhibition without the rights holder's permission, please contact the Exhibitions Department at [email protected].

Find out more

Events
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Related galleries
The Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries (Rooms 92–94)

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