Utagawa Hiroshige, master woodblock designer, created many of the world’s most recognizable ukiyo-e. Among them, one remembers Tokaido-gojusan-tsugi (The fifty-three stations of the Tokaido) and Meisho-Edo-hyakkei (One hundred views of famous places of Edo). Hiroshige enjoys a deep, far-reaching history with Marunouchi. The artist (1797 to October 12, 1858) is occasionally referred to as Ando, his birth name.
Utagawa was born to Ando Genemon at the Yayosu-kashi fire brigade residence. Although Yayosu is synonymous with the modern Yaesu district, which faces Marunouchi with Tokyo Station sandwiched in between, the residence itself was located near the current Meiji Seimei Kan Building in Marunouchi. Ando Genemon, a low-ranking samurai, settled on the name “Tokutaro” for his son.
A fire brigade residence is the equivalent of today’s “fire station.” After experiencing the horrors of the Great Fire of Meireki (1657), the feudal government redoubled its fire prevention efforts, establishing a “fire department” composed of samurais. Nine-meter lookout towers, complete with alarm bells and wooden gongs, fronted the new fire brigade residences, 10 of which flanked the north and west sides of Edo Castle.
Interestingly, these fire brigades were strictly high society affairs. While daimyo and high-ranking samurais within the Edo Castle area enjoyed their services, townspeople were left to fend for themselves.

Ando Tokutaro, who evolved into Hiroshige, grew up in the fire brigade residence, and displayed drawing skills early on. Sadly, both of his parents died young and he became head of the family at a young age. In 1811, when he was 15, Tokutaro apprenticed to Utagawa Toyohiro, and assumed the name Utagawa Hiroshige the following year. While succeeding his father’s position as firefighter, Hiroshige dedicated himself to painting. As his life was far from luxurious, he depended on his art for supplemental income. The struggle was made harder by social rules. Far-flung travel to seek painting subjects, for example, was not an option for the hapless Hiroshige, as no one could predict when a fire would break out. (At the time, samurais were not free to stay the night anywhere but in their own homes; this presented a harsh limitation on Hiroshige’s artistic freedom.)
It is said that Hiroshige day-tripped to sketch as often as possible, leaving Marunouchi early in the morning on his days off from firefighting. Although his brigade was in charge of Daimyo-koji, an area lined with daimyo residences at the time, he luckily faced no catastrophic fires during his years on duty.
Hiroshige spent 11 years wearing “two pairs of straw sandals,” as the saying goes, doubling as a professional artist and a conscientious fireman, until he finally handed the reigns of the family household to an adopted son. The first half of his life, both private and public, was inseparable from Marunouchi. This is clearly depicted in Edo no hana (Flower of Edo), painted by Hiroshige at the tender age of 23, through the images of the firefighters of Edo.