Japanese Landscape Prints - Katsushika Hokusai.

Lanscape painting has a long tradition in East Asian art. Landscape was not an important feature of Japanese woodblock prints until the early 1800s. by this time, Japanese citizens were taking part in more outdoor sight seeing activities, such as festivals, temple visits and boat trips, and there was a growing demans for souvenir images. In the competitive world of the publishing industry, publishers were constantly trying to develop new products, and landscape prints were a novelty.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a very well known print painted by Katsushika Hokusai between 1829 -32 in the late Edo period as the first print in Hokusai's series Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji. This landscape print is one of his most famous works, and one of the best recognised works of Japanese art in the world. It depicts a huge wave threatening boats off the coast of the prefecture o Kanagawa. On many occasions the wave is assumed to be a tsunami when in fact it is as the title suggests, more likely to be a large wave of the open sea.

  Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji in an ukiyo-e series of large, colour woodblock prints by Hokusai. The series focuses around images of Mount Fuji in differing seasons and weather conditions from a variety of different places and distances, and the mountain itself appears in the background. It consists of 46 prints created between 1826 and 1833. The first 36 were included in the original publication and due to their popularity, ten more prints were added after the original publication.

Fine Wind, Clear Morning is another wood block print by hokusai which is also part of his Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji series. In early autumn, when the wind is southerly and the sky is clear, the rising sun can turn Mount Fuji red. Hokusai captures this moment very precisely in time with the composition and the three shades of deepening blue of the sky mirror the three hues of the mountain. Mt. Fuji's solidly symmetrical shape on the right half of the image is balance by the delicate clouds on the left, creating a harmonious composition. I find that the red and green of the mountain and the forest sit well together as they are complimentary colours to each other and the blend works well. The blue of the sky next to the red feels like more of a clash but It works well with this image as it is vibrant and also shows  up strongly as the setting sun is beaming brightly against the mountain and the sky remains calmly blue behind it and also appears more vast because the colours appear stronger next to each other.

This image depicts a much more mundane location, a path that weaves through a marsh. The silhouette of  Mt Fuji is drawn with a single line, providing a backdrop for the figures and foliage battling the wind in the foreground. Bending their bodies and clutching at scarves and hats, all turn their faces away from the viewer as if they were the source of the strong wind that carries off the paper that the woman's kimono had tucked away. The papers are blown skyward, with some dancing leaves and an escaped hat. The wearer of the hat's gestures are that of surprise, a circle of padding is left pitifully on his head. The colours in this image feel very fresh and make the scenery look cold and as if the blowing wind is cold as white and shades of icy blue are dominant within this piece. the figures are wearing dark blue and brown which to me indicates warmer colours and possible indicates that the figures are trying to wear attire suitable to fight off cold winds and weather.

Inume pass in the Kai province is another part of the series which depicts a view of Mt Fuji from the hillside of Inume Pass. On the gentle slope at the left, two travellers walk in front of two horses carrying cargo. Ahead of them are two more men climbing the steep hill, Fuji surrounded by heavy fog at the base, looms against the yellow sky. In the foreground, travellers ascend Inume Pass and the small figures are seen from a distance, making the focal point of the composition the peak of Mount Fuji. The volcano rises through the thick layer of fog, changing to brown and then blue before reaching the snow-capped summit. The green and yellow rolling hills of the pass on the right provide a counterbalance to the form of the mountain placed slightly off-center to the left.