Utagawa Hiroshige, “Evening Snow at Mount Hira,” 1834-1835

Artist: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858)

Publisher: Eisendo

Title of print: Evening Snow at Mount Hira (Hira bosetsu)

Title of print series: The Eight Views of Omi (Omi hakkei)

Date: c. 1834-1835

Medium: Woodblock print; ink and color on paper

The crisp and sharp contours of Mount Hira frame the blankness of the paper and permit its natural color to peek through as the snow. A wash of blue at the foot of the mountain adds a layer of coldness to the image. Indications of human activity are at a minimum: two boats rest in the water and a procession of people and horses carries cargo. The landscape is monumentalized. The gradient black sky outlines the mountains far into the distance and suggests the temporality of the scene. The cartouche at the upper left corner indicates the print series. The poem, written in the sixteenth century, is characteristic of the “Eight Views” theme, indicating the print’s literary influence.

Inspired by “The Eight Views of Xiao and Xiang,” a literati painting theme originated in China, Japanese artists began to depict various local sites with their poetry. The earliest and most famous adaptation of this theme is “The Eight Views of Omi,” referring to eight sites near Lake Biwa. Because of the theme’s popularity during the Edo Period, Hiroshige produced around fifty different sets of the “Eight Views,” and twenty of them were of “The Eight Views of Omi.”

Other Impressions found at: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, British Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Boston

 

Selected Readings:

  • Binyon, Laurence. “A Catalogue of Japanese & Chinese Woodcuts Preserved in the Sub-Department of Oriental Prints and Drawings in the British Museum” HathiTrust, The British Museum, babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89057181877.
  • Shirane, Haruo. “Dressing Up, Dressing Down: Poetry, Image and Transposition in the Eight Views.” Impressions, no. 31, 2010, pp. 50–71. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42597696.
  • Stubbs, Judith A. “Omi Hakkei.” Order No. T-32468 The University of Chicago, 1993. Ann Arbor: ProQuest. Web.

 

Posted by Michelle (Qinlin) Li

Oct. 31, 2020