In 1856, Hiroshige "retired from the world," becoming a Buddhist monk;this was the year he began his One Hundred Famous Views of Edo .He died aged 62 during the great Edo cholera epidemic of 1858 (whether the epidemic killed him is unknown) and was buried in a Zen Buddhist temple in Asakusa Just before his death, he left a poem:
"I leave my brush in the East And set forth on my journey.I shall see the famous places in the Western Land."
(The Western Land in this context refers to the strip of land by the Tōkaidō between Kyoto and Edo, but it does double duty as a reference to the Paradise of the Amida Buddha).Despite his productivity and popularity, Hiroshige was not wealthy—his commissions were less than those of other in-demand artists, amounting to an income of about twice the wages of a day labourer.His will left instructions for the payment of his debts