Hiroshige and Katsushika Hokusai are probably the two most famous Japanese artists in the West. They had a significant influence on the Post-Impressionists, including Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet and James McNeill Whistler, and on the Japonisme movement in European art in the latter part of the 19th century.
The publication of this sumptuous publication is timely, for this year is the 150th anniversary of Japan's first treaties with the five leading Western powers (United States, Netherlands, Russia, Britain and France — though not Italy as the introduction states), which provided for the opening in 1859 of diplomatic and trade relations.