ARCHIVED Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road – Private View with Curator Dr Alfred Haft (Non-members)
Date
Friday 11 July 2025
Time
9.00-10.00am
*Meeting time: 8:45am at the Main Entrance
Venue
British Museum
Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DG
Booking Details
Free – Members of The Japan Society only.
Please note this event is fully booked. If you are a member and would like to be added to the waiting list, please contact us at event@japansociety.org.uk.
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The Japan Society is pleased to invite a small group of members to an exclusive tour of the exhibition Hiroshige: artist of the open road with Lead Curator Dr Alfred Haft. This is the first exhibition on the celebrated Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) to be held at the British Museum, and in London for more than a quarter of a century.
Born during an unsettled time in Japan's history, Utagawa Hiroshige went on to become one of the country's most talented, prolific and popular artists. As Japan confronted the encroaching outside world, Hiroshige's calm artistic vision connected with – and reassured – people at every level of society.
The exhibition showcases Hiroshige's diverse depictions of life in Japan, from fashionable figures and city views to remote landscapes and nature impressions. His bird-and-flower prints reveal a poetic feeling for nature, while his landscapes reflect the growing interest in travel across Japan. Hiroshige, with remarkable technical skills, sympathetically portrayed people from all walks of life. Despite coming from a samurai family, he crossed social boundaries to depict popular customs. His work was affordable, including celebrated landscape prints and disposable fans. The exhibition features prints, drawings, books and paintings, exploring Hiroshige's global legacy from Japan's Edo period to contemporary artists.
This is a great opportunity to gain insight into the exhibition, and attendees are welcome to remain and enjoy the exhibition following the tour.
Dr Alfred Haft is JTI Project Curator for Japanese Collections at the British Museum and Lead Curator of Hiroshige: artist of the open road. His research focuses on Japanese prints and print history. His publications include Hiroshige: artist of the open road (2025); 'Capturing Nature' in Salon Culture in Japan (2024); 'Hokusai and Obuse: A Study of Cultural Mobility during the Late Edo Period' in Late Hokusai: Society, Thought, Technique, Legacy (2023); 'Utamaro and the Culture of the Floating World' in Studies from Nature (2019); and Aesthetic Strategies of the Floating World (2012).
Image: © The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
If you have any questions, please call The Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email us at events@japansociety.org.uk
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