Memorial portrait of Utagawa Hiroshige

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.”