ANDO HIROSHIGE was born in Edo in 1797 and Died in 1858. His father was a fire warden at Edo Castle but Ando showed an interest in art. At 12 Years of Age both his parents died and, after studying for a time under Okajime Rinsai, in 1799 he joined the famous Utagawa Painting School under Toyohiro Utagawa. By 1812 he was given permission to use the Utagawa name in conjunction with his own and created a large number of figure woodblocks including those of beautiful women of the day.

In 1831 he was asked to be a minor retainer on an official journey of the Shogun of the Kyoto Court along the Tokaido trail and in the following year produced the first of 13 separate editions of the 53 Stations of the Tokaido Trail in different formats and style the final one created in 1857. He produced more than 8000 woodblocks in his career including a number of landscape and historical series.