Utagawa (Ando) Hiroshige (1797-1858) stands in the same relation to Japanese ukiyo-e painting as Shakespeare does to Elizabethan drama. Both were the exquisite flower that blossomed in the fertile soil of a vibrant artistic tradition, one which they both validated and made relevant for all time. And just as the dramatists of the Elizabethan age helped forge the consciousness and identity of a nation, so too did the ukiyo-e artists' picturing of the places and natural wonders of Japan in an age w