Artist: Katsushika Hokusai
Title: Kajikazawa in Kai Province
Date: c. 1830 - 1834
Details: More information...
Source:
Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description:
This print is one of Hokusai’s most successful and evocative designs in the Fuji series. In its simple composition, with only a few elements, Hokusai presents the close interaction between natural forces and fragile, yet durable men. The pounding waves and wind-driven rain seem mercilessly cruel to humans, but at the same time, these forces also provide man with a way of life when he is determined to survive. Fuji rises in the near distance, revealing its summit through thick fog. Standing in the river on a rugged rock washed by the turbulent waves, a fisherman casts his net lines. His determination to make a good catch is expressed in his posture – foot firmly gripping the rock and body bent to hold the lines. His little son, sitting on the rock below him, tends the fish basket. They exchange no word, but they are perfectly united in their dangerous endeavor. As with most of Hokusai’s great designs, this composition is organized by a simple geometric principle: repetition of similar forms in varied locations. The left slope of Fuji is mirrored in the line created by the form of the large rock, the child’s head, and the bending body of the fisherman. The right slope of the mountain is repeated by the net lines. The waves repeat the triangular shape of the mountain. This print shows a typical basic color scheme of blue. The key-block was printed in blue. (The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, HOKUSAI AND HIROSHIGE – Great Japanese Prints from the James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts: The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1998 Page 69. Cat. 20) ********************* Together with the related print Great Wave, this is one of the most effective compositions ever designed by Hokusai. It is dominated by a diagonally jutting rock that rises from the left over the rough waters of the Fuji River. The line of the rock is continued by a fisherman standing determinedly on its edge, and by the left slope of Mount Fuji, culminating in the summit at the top of the print. The fisherman’s lines rise at an opposing angle, matching the right slope of the volcano and the posture of the young boy who crouches over a basket below the man. The tension of these two opposing diagonals is gradually eased through the sweeping lines of mist beyond the river, until it is finally resolved in the serene horizontal bands of clouds in the sky. This is an early aizuri-e (“blue printed picture”) impression printed entirely in imported Prussian blue. Later impressions add green for the rock and brown for the figures, reducing the seamless continuity between human and natural elements that makes the design so remarkable. “Hokusai’s Summit: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” (09/24/2009-01/06/2010) ******************************
