Utagawa Hiroshige: Last Great Master of Ukiyo-e

"In 1856, around the age of 60, Hiroshige “retired from the world”, becoming a Buddhist monk. Two years later he passed away (during the great Edo cholera epidemic, though it’s not known if this was the cause of death) and was buried in a Zen temple in Asakusa. Just before his passing, he wrote the following poem:

I leave my brush in the East
And set forth on my journey.
I shall see the famous places in the Western Land."

Blooming Irises in Horikiri, 1857

http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/utagawa-hiroshige-last-great-master-of-ukiyo-e/