Fishing in the surf at Kajikazawa

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Inspired by: Katsushika Hokusai - Fishing in the surf at Kajikazawa

An Anglicized title for this print is “Fishing in the surf at Kajikazawa”. It was the first in the series, “Thirty Six Views of Mt Fuji”, the most famous of which was “The Great Wave of Kanagawa”. He started this series when he was 73, at the height of his career. He worked until he was 89 and felt he got better as he got older. Just before he died he wrote, “If only the heavens could grant me another five years I would become a great artist”.
The first impression of this print was all blue, but the number of colors was increased in later additions. Around 1790 the Dutch traders brought Prussian Blue pigments to Japan. At first this was very expensive, but by 1820 the price came down and the ukiyo-e began using it in their prints. Hokusai was one of the early adopters and the original version of many of his prints were all blue, including The Great Wave.  The Japanese called the new color Beru-ia, which comes from their word for Berlin, the city where the pigment was manufactured.
Like many of the Japanese artists of the era, Hokusai changed his name several times during his career. These changes often marked different stages of life, or it could have just been a way of refreshing the brand. By the time he got to the Mt Fuji series he was using the name Gakyo rojin (Old man crazy to paint). To see original: https://bit.ly/4fAztDn https://bit.ly/4fAztDn

Heavy snow and visitors to the Shiba Jingu Palace - Ichiryusai Hiroshige

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Inspired by: Ichiryusai Hiroshige - Heavy snow and visitors to the Shiba Jingu Palace – 1858

Hiroshige was one of the last great ukiyo-e artists. He was a member of the Utagawa school, which was one of the four major schools and stood at the forefront of this 19th century movement. Since Japanese artists often took on the name of their school, for part of his life he was known as Utagawa Hiroshiga.

During Hiroshige’s time, the print industry was booming. Tourism was also on the rise, and these prints became the equivalent of travel postcards for the Japanese. This print was published 1858, the year of Hiroshige’s death. It is part of One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, an illustrated guidebook to the city now called Tokyo.

Ukyo-e first appeared in the West after Japan began trading with the Dutch in 1609. At that time the prints were only used to wrap parcels for shipping. They didn’t gain real attention until they appeared at the Paris world’s Fair of 1855. There, they caught the attention of the Impressionists, who went nuts over them. They were all over the walls in Monet’s home in Givernny. Van Gogh also covered his walls, and made several direct copies of Hiroshige's work.