Edo period ukiyo-e botanical art (Utagawa Hiroshige)

This is a work by the second-generation Utagawa Hiroshige. The piece is mounted in a simple glass panel with a wooden frame, sized like a shikishi (square paperboard). It is marked with the third year of Bunkyu (1863), but it is speculated to be a later print from the late Edo period. A disciple of the first-generation Hiroshige, his surname was originally Suzuki, later changed to Morita, and his given name was Shinpe. He became a pupil of the first-generation Hiroshige during the Koka era and was initially known as Shigenobu. He created bijin-ga (pictures of beautiful women), kacho-ga (bird-and-flower paintings), and musha-e (warrior prints), and later began to produce landscape paintings, gradually approaching the creative domain of the first-generation. In Ansei 5 (1858), the first-generation Hiroshige passed away, and the following year, in Ansei 6, he became the son-in-law of Hiroshige's adopted daughter Tatsu, inheriting the name of the second-generation Hiroshige. In the first year of Keio (1865), due to a 20-year age difference leading to marital disputes, he eventually separated from Tatsu and subsequently adopted the Morita surname. He moved to Yokohama and took the art name Kisai Rissho, creating label paintings for export tea boxes, thus earning the nickname "Tea Box Hiroshige." In December of Ansei 6 (1859), he boldly featured the golden carp on the keep of Nagoya Castle under the moonlight in the "Famous Views of Various Provinces: True View of Nagoya in Owari Province." He participated in the first-generation Hiroshige's late series "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo," signing "Second-generation Hiroshige" on the "Evening Scene of Rain at the Paulownia Field in Akasaka" among the 120 prints. He left behind Yokohama-e and Kaika-e with the signature "Rissho." He passed away on September 17, Meiji 2 (1869), at the age of 44.