I Do Not Know Why,

but there is something about vintage Japanese art,

 that I fine so attractive, these are all from Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858), considered by many to be the last great master of the ukiyo-e genre (“pictures of the floating world”), Hiroshige was born in 1797 to a samurai family in Edo (modern Tokyo), after his parents died, around the age of fourteen, Hiroshige began to take up painting and studied for several years under the artist Toyohiro. During this period he produced many works reflecting traditional ukiyo-e themes such as women and actors, but upon Toyohiro’s death in 1928 he underwent a pronounced shift toward the landscapes for which he is best known today, as well as bird and flower images, in 1856, around the age of 60, Hiroshige “retired from the world”, becoming a Buddhist monk, two years later he passed away (during the great Edo cholera epidemic, though it’s not known if this was the cause of death) and was buried in a Zen temple in Asakusa, he was a prolific artist producing works in the tens of thousands in his lifetime, all of the ones in this post are from the collection housed at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, above, Mount Utsu, Okabe, 1832

 The Plum Garden at Kameido Shrine, 1857

 Jumansubo Plain in Susaki near Fukagawa, 1857

 Maiko Beach in Harima Province, 1853

 Blooming Irises in Horikiri, 1857

 Ukifune, ca. 1845

 Seascape in Satta in the Suruga Province, 1858

“Fox Fires” on New Year’s Eve at the Shozoku Nettle Tree in Oji, 1857, as I mentioned before, there is something I like about Japanese art of this period, for me they are all stunning.