104 CHAPTER SEVEN Landscapes Copyright © 2012. Tuttle Publishing. All rights reserved. © 2012. Tuttle Publishing. Copyright Harris, Frederick. Ukiyo-e : The Art of the Japanese Print, Tuttle Publishing, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=928253. Created from ual on 2018-10-15 14:05:49. INTRODUCTION 105 raditional landscape painting in Japan has its roots in China. TLikewise, the Chinese produced color prints about three-quarters of a century before the Japanese. There are basic differences between Chinese and Japanese landscape painting and their European counterpart, the most important being the European use of the sun to defi ne form and create shadows. Very seldom are there any shadows in Chinese and Japanese Traditional Japanese landscape FIG. 115 landscape painting. The second basic painting was not meant to describe a Katsushika HOKUSAI 北斎 (1760–1849) difference is the position of the viewer. particular location. If names of moun- Red Fuji, from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji In traditional Chinese painting, the tains or vistas were indicated on a 凱風快晴 (1826–31) viewer moves into the landscape, his picture, it was purely the imagination 28.5 x 38.8 cm viewpoint changing as he proceeds. It of the artist at work. Many Japanese Courtesy of Adachi Institute of Woodcut Prints is virtually impossible to see the tops scenes were placed in China and painted In this print, Hokusai achieved the ultimate state- of mountains or trees from the fore- by artists who had never set foot there. ment of Japan’s most revered natural wonder. Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan, ground. Instead, one has to view the The traditional artist used the sun and and with its almost perfect symmetry has been scene in sections from the foreground moon only as a decorative device. The worshipped in art and literature since the Nara to the middle ground and eventually same applied to changes in the weather, period (719–84). Countless pilgrims climb the mountain annually, and to see the sun rise from the background. This explains why which usually offered the four seasons its peak is an unforgettable emotional experience. houses and people in the distance are as a traditional change of cosmic time. The “Red Fuji” is an extremely simple composition not smaller as they recede into the These basic principles were understood with a limited palette of blue, green and red and background. Moreover, the position by ukiyo-e artists and, in some cases, a skilled use of bokashi printing. of the eye level changes so that one incorporated in their works, but by and can have a worm’s-eye view in one area large they chose to ignore them. The plants and animals. The landscape and a bird’s-eye view in another. In the townspeople—shopkeepers, workers, prints they produced are in a category last half of the eighteenth century, the entertainers and others—did not have of their own in the world of art. They landscape served mainly as a back- the artistic training to appreciate such are not abstractions of imaginary places drop for a fi gural composition. It was an esoteric art form. They were prac- but are easily acceptable to our pictorial not until the nineteenth century that tical people who liked to travel and to vocabulary. They are of specifi c places. the landscape itself became a worthy purchase pictures of the local shrines They are also colorful and composed subject of woodblock prints. and temples and beauty spots they in such a way that the viewer is made visited, perhaps afterwards mounting to feel that he is part of the scene. FIG. 114 them in albums, much as the modern- Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) Katsushika HOKUSAI day traveler takes photographs or buys was the greater designer of the two, 北斎 (1760–1849) postcards. Sometimes they would an eccentric genius whose imagination The Great Wave off Kanagawa, from purchase fans bearing the same scenes. knew no bounds (Figs. 114–120). He Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji 神奈川沖浪凱 (1826–31) It was not important that the scenes was drawn to diverse artistic infl uences, 26 x 38 cm shown were not a photographic like- among them Chinese and Western art, Courtesy of Adachi Institute of Woodcut Prints ness. To the buyers, the imaginative which helped to make him a universal This print has to be the most commonly concept of a place was more important artist. Some of his famous series, such recognized image of Japanese art. It is indeed than a realistic image. as Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji a masterpiece, and probably one of the great masterpieces of the world. To quote a friend, the While many woodblock print artists (1826–31) and One Hundred Views of late Charles Mitchell, when describing this print: attempted landscapes, it was the crea- Mount Fuji (1834), have become icons “Hokusai claimed that all things in the universe tive and innovative genius of two artists in Japanese art. His waterfall series were basically triangular or round. A careful study in particular—Katsushika Hokusai and shows his imagination reaching heights of this design will reveal that it is composed mostly of triangles and circles. It is extremely Utagawa Hiroshige—that conclusively never before attained by any other Copyright © 2012. Tuttle Publishing. All rights reserved. © 2012. Tuttle Publishing. Copyright interesting to analyze the intricate structure and shifted the emphasis in ukiyo-e from artist. Hokusai lived to be eighty-nine relationships. It is also worth noting that the a style of personal portraiture focused years old. His life went through many complicated geometrical pattern did not result in a static design but in one that is the very on courtesans and actors into a broader stages, and with each stage he adopted epitome of dynamic movement and actions.” style of art focused on landscapes, a new name, but as the 1830s drew Harris, Frederick. Ukiyo-e : The Art of the Japanese Print, Tuttle Publishing, 2012. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ual/detail.action?docID=928253. Created from ual on 2018-10-15 14:05:49. 106 Chapter Seven near, his vision and single-minded but natural vegetable or mineral dyes They are the most contemporary of all passion saw the creation of his majestic were generally expensive to produce his compositions, embracing abstract Fuji series and the series of waterfalls. and were more light sensitive than qualities that do not appear in world art Hokusai started the Fuji series when aniline colors distilled from coal tar, until the twentieth century. The varia- he was seventy years old. and thus faded easily. Other synthetic tions constructed around a simple theme At this time also, he attempted to colors were eventually introduced, of descending water, either in a gushing revolutionize the palette of ukiyo-e by such as the red in Hokusai’s famous column or undulating over the sides of a creating a masterful monochromatic “Red Fuji,” but the hanshita-e (key mountain, are remarkable. The compo- use of Prussian blue, also known in block) for the entire series was printed sitions also contain fi gures that initially Japan as Berlin blue (bero). A synthetic in blue, not black, as was the norm. go unnoticed against the power of the color imported from Europe to Japan Aizome-e became very fashionable falling water, but on closer examination in 1829, and the fi rst of the synthetic and was utilized by numerous artists reveal all sorts of human activity. colors to be used, the dark opaque other than Hokusai. The fi rst artist to Hokusai had a prodigious energy. It blue revolutionized landscape prints exploit the color was, in fact, Eisen in is estimated that he drew over 70,000 because it allowed for many tones and 1829, but in the 1830s its popularity different designs in his long life. His also could be mixed with other colors. soared and we have examples of working period spanned over seventy In Japan, prints in Prussian blue are Kunisada and Sadahide also creating years, which meant he had to produce known as aizome-e. About ten of the monochrome prints in Berlin blue. three or more designs daily. It is hard original printings of the Thirty-six Many of these prints were in the format to imagine a man working so tirelessly Views of Mount Fuji were done entirely of uchiwa-e (fan prints). Unfortunately, every day to accomplish this body of in tones of Prussian blue, making them because of persistent usage many fans work—and, moreover, to create his best monochromatic prints. They aroused a eventually became torn and were work during his golden years. Hokusai great deal of controversy at the time of discarded. A fi ne example is the Hiro- stands apart from all the other ukiyo-e publication, primarily because of the shige fan print of fi shing boats repro- artists. His imagination, power of con- use of Berlin blue. Yet, the fi rst series duced from my own collection (see ception and mastery of design were not of fi ve prints feature water and it seems Fig. 126). equaled by any who came after him. entirely fi tting to use blue. No other The set of eight prints of Hokusai’s Although he had students who could color could possibly have accomplished waterfalls, although not recognized as produce bird and fl ower books and the same result. Japanese print icons in the same way as other illustrated material, no one could Prior to 1830, other blues were avail- the “Great Wave off Kanagawa” or the ever match the power, versatility and able, in particular indigo blue (aibo), “Red Fuji,” are to me his masterpieces.