Utagawa Hiroshige: Pictures of the Floating World

 

"The Moon over a Waterfall" (an early 1830s woodblock print from the series "Twenty-Eight Moonlight Views") by Utagawa Hiroshige I, 1797 - 1858, a.k.a. Ando Hiroshige.

Hiroshige is considered the last great master of the ukiyo-e tradition of painting, which flourished in Japan from the 17th to 19th centuries. Ukiyo-e 浮世絵 translates as "pictures of the floating world".

In 1856 Hiroshige retired from the world of human affairs and became a Buddhist monk, seeking refuge in a monastery. However, the cholera epidemic would find him there and claim his life in 1858. 

As a farewell to civilian life he wrote:

東路に
筆を残して
旅の空
西のみくにの
名所を見む

"I leave my brush in the East.

And set forth on my journey.

I shall see the famous places in the Western Land."

(Western Land is probably a reference to the paradise of the Amida Buddha in Pure Land Buddhism.)

Amida Buddha: Main Buddha of Pure Land Buddhism

Amitabha statue in gold leaf with inlaid crystal eyes.

Tokyo National Museum