Download your free colouring sheet of Utagawa Hiroshige’s ‘Snow View of Shiba Zojo-ji Temple’ below.

Born in 1797, Andō Hiroshige (later known under the professional name Utagawa Hiroshige) was the son of Andō Genemon- who held the position of warden of the Edo (the city now known as Tokyo) fire brigade. Andō Hiroshige took up his father’s position as a fire warden when he was around twelve years old and in 1811 he joined the school of artist Utagawa Toyohiro. At first he focused on similar subject matters to more experienced artists in his school, such as prints of actors and warriors. From 1830 onwards, however, he began to develop his own style and focus on prints of birds and flowers and landscapes.

This snowy view of Shiba Zojo-ji, a Buddhist temple in the heart of Tokyo, is not the only depiction of the temple to have been produced by Hiroshige and other ukiyo-e artists. The temple has close ties to the Tokugawa clan, who governed Japan during the Edo period (1603-1867), with it being designated as their ancestral temple and six members of the clan being interred within its grounds. Their remains were moved to a less prominent spot within the temple during the Meiji period.

You can download a colouring sheet of Utagawa Hiroshige’s Snow View of Shiba Zojo-ji Temple, created by Hannah from the Whitworth’s Visitor Team below. We hope you enjoy it! – Steph

Further reading

Lawrence Bickford, ‘Ukiyo-e Print History’, Impressions 17 (1993).

Joseph Cali with John Dougill, Shinto Shrines: A Guide to the Sacred Sites of Japan’s Ancient Religion (University of Hawai’i Press, 2013).

Stephen Mansfield, Tokyo: A Cultural History (Oxford University Press, 2009).

Nancy K. Stalker, Japan: History and Culture from Classical to Cool (University of California Press, 2018).

Melinda Takeuchi, ‘Making Mountains: Mini-Fujis, Edo popular Religion and Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo‘, Impressions 24 (2002), pp. 24-47.