Here is one picture. This is Shinagawa-shuku, a series of ukiyo-e prints that everyone knows, "Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido". A procession of feudal lords walks along the road with the sunrise sky, and the calm seascape is drawn in the left half of the composition. The indigo gradation that dyes the sea is very impressive, and brings a rich and moist feeling to the entire painting.

The artist is Utagawa Hiroshige, who represents the ukiyo-e artist of the late Edo period. The ukiyo-e prints created during this period crossed the sea and had a great influence on European painters such as Van Gogh and Monet. Among them, the indigo blue, which was frequently used in ukiyo-e, seems to have been very impressive, and was called "Japan blue" or "Hiroshige blue" as a color that symbolizes Japan.

It was from the Edo period that the indigo dye became popular among the common people. During this period, cotton became popular, and indigo dyeing also spread because the cotton dyed well. Dyeing techniques such as stencil dyeing, shibori, and kasuri were also developed, and work clothes, noren curtains, yukata, furoshiki, and other items were eventually dyed in indigo.