Considered the last great master of Japanese ukiyo-e print artists, Utagawa Hiroshige, born Andō Tokutarō  (1797 – 1858), was best known for his horizontal-format landscape series The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō and for his vertical landscape series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo. While the typical focus of most ukiyo-e was beautiful women, popular actors, and scenes of the urban pleasure districts of Japan's Edo period (1603–1868), Hiroshige's main focus was on the beauty of Japan as seen through his popular landscapes and occasional kacho print. The popular series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Hokusai was a strong influence on Hiroshige's choice of subject, though Hiroshige's approach was more poetic and ambient than Hokusai's bolder, more formal prints. Subtle use of color was essential in Hiroshige's prints, often printed with multiple impressions in the same area and with extensive use of bokashi (color gradation), both of which were rather labor-intensive techniques. For historians and collectors, Hiroshige's death was a turning point after which saw the rapid decline of quality of work and subject matter in the ukiyo-e genre, due in large part to the western influences overtaking Japan during the Meiji restorartion. Hiroshige's work came to have a marked influence on western European painting towards the close of the 19th century as a part of the trend in Japonism. Western European artists, such as Manet and Monet, collected and closely studied Hiroshige's compositions. Vincent van Gogh, after failing to sell any of the ukiyo-e he bought from a Merchant, began to hang his woodblock prints around his apartment. He soon fell in love with the commanding landcape perspectives hallmark of Hiroshige's ukiyo-e style. He began imitating his style by painting copies of two of Hiroshige's prints from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo: Plum Park in Kameido and Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi bridge and Atake. Unfortunatly Van Gogh died miserable and unaware of the great influence his work would have on the art world, immortalizing both himself and the perspectives of the last great ukiyo-e artist Hiroshige.