What’s in a name? Utagawa Hiroshige III and the art of reinventing oneself

Japanese artists adopted different art names throughout their career, but why and under what circumstances did they change their art name? When it comes to ukiyo-e 浮世絵, the Japanese traditional genre of woodblock printing, print artists were given their first art name—or gō 号—by their teacher. It was often so that the first character of the pupil’s art name was the last character of his teacher’s name. In case of Utagawa Hiroshige III (三代歌川広重; 1842-1894), he was first given the art name Shigemasa 重政, for which he was granted the character ‘shige’ from the art name Hiroshige. Known today as a representative artist who chronicled the Westernisation and modernisation of the Meiji period (1868-1912), a number of crucial questions remain unanswered regarding why and when he changed art names. Therefore, this article considers his different art names, what circumstances prompted a change, and what it implied in terms of his self-identification. In particular, it will reinterpret Hiroshige III’s usage of the signatures Hiroshige, Hiroshige II, and Hiroshige III, as he used all three at different times as well as for different purposes.

Publication year:2022

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