South+Wind+at+Clear+Dawn--Woodblock+Print+by+Katsushika+Hokusai


 * South Wind at Clear Dawn: Woodblock Print by Katsushika Hokusai**



Image Obtained from The [|Cleveland Museum of Art]

Title: South Wind at Clear Dawn, also known as: South Wind, Clear Dawn; Fuji in Clear Weather and Red Fuji Artist: Katsushika Hokusai Date: 1830’s Period: Edo Country of Origin: Japan Cultural/Ethnic Affiliation: Japanese Medium: Color Ink, Woodblock Print Dimensions: 10 1/16 x 14 3/4 in. Museum/Collection: Cleveland Museum of Art Accession Number: 1930.189 Current Location and Manner of Display: Not on view
 * Artwork Identification**

[|Katsushika Hokusai] (1760 – 1849) was a Japanese painter and printmaker. Born in Edo (now the city of Tokyo), he was one of Japan's premier artists. His body of work is extensive, but he is best known (in Western cultures) for his woodblock print series, //Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji//. This particular image and part of this series is known by more than one name, one of the most popular being //South Wind at Clear Dawn//. It has become a highly collectable part of this series and one that highlights Hokusai’s talent as one of Japans most celebrated artists.
 * Introduction**



This image was obtained from [|Wikipedia]


 * Descriptive Analysis**

The Woodblock Print is form of engraving and enables multiple images of a specific (engraved) design to be made. The starting point is the design and an outline drawing or “sen-gaki”. Once the sen-gaki is ready it is placed on a suitable sized block of wood, and the location of the design is established using “registration marks”. The registration marks determine the exact placement of where the paper will be placed for the future prints and are usually located on the left side of the block copy, or the “hanshita”. After the design image is pasted to the block of wood, or transferred in a number of different ways to the block, the carving process can begin. [|Carving a Woodblock print] The first stage begins with “cutting the lines” with a carving knife called the “hangito”. The second phase uses a “marunomi”, a shallow round chisel used to carve out the interior of the design. During the third stage, flat chisels known as “aisuki” are used to clear away excess wood along the outline lines. The final stage in the carving is done with a wide clearing chisel referred to as a “soainomi”. For each color to be used, a separate block is carved in this same process. Pigments are applied to each block being used and the paper is pressed down on the block to transfer the individual colors.

South Wind at Clear Dawn, part of the woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji shows Hokusai’s incredible talent at creating a color woodblock print. There are seven distinguishable colors, or variations on each color used. An indigo blue is used in a thin line at the top and separates into a royal blue for the coloring of the sky. The sky contains quite a few white clouds and the clouds are colored in a powder blue at the top and bottom of the skyline. The image of Mount Fuji fills the main portion of the print and the peak is reached three quarters of the way to the top and is about three quarters to the right of the left side of the print. The top of the volcanic mountain is colored brown / deep crimson red and the center portion of the mountain is colored in a brilliant red. It is capped with veins of white that indicate traces of snow at the peak. The base of the mountain fades into a very pale red and continues into an earthy green dotted with specks of a dark blue which is an indication of foliage. There is also a vertical white rectangle containing Japanese text in the upper left hand corner with additional text located on the right side of that text block. This is a description of the image obtained from Wikipedia. The image obtained from the Cleveland Museum of Art is quite faded due to its age, as it is part of an original run of prints an exact number of which is unknown.


 * Formal and Contextual Analysis**

Katsushika Hokusai is one of the most well known Japanese artists. He had a productive career that spanned seventy years in which he produced thousands of images. One of his best known works was the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. There are many well known prints from this series, two however are seen regularly in contemporary western culture. Mount Fuji Behind the Wave off Kanagawa or best known as The Great Wave and South Wind at Clear Dawn. These prints are known as “Ukiyo-e” style prints and are Japanese genre woodblock prints produced during the 17th – 20th centuries. Ukiyo-e literally translates as “the floating world” in English.

Hokusai was in his seventies when he created this series and he continued to produce prints and other works until his death, near the age of ninety. It is said that Hokusai frequently changed his name and it is estimated that he used more than thirty different names. His earliest work was signed Katsukawa Shunro and was dated 1778. His work began as designs for the Kabuki Theatre, but he later changed to landscapes and genre prints.

During the later part of the nineteenth century, Japan opened itself to western imports and a flow of regular trade began. Many of the material goods being shipped to the west were packaged and wrapped in woodblock printed paper. This packaging material became collected by many well known artists including: Van Gogh, Whistler, Monet, Degas, Cassatt, Lautrec and others. This influence became known as [|Japonisme] and was influential in the Impressionist artistic style. The solid outlines and vivid blocks of color continue to inspire artists to this day.


 * Personal Interpretation**

The ideas of a series of work are of interest to me personally. I enjoy seeing different perspectives on a specific subject, different angles, times of day, or from a different vantage point. A subject being done in a series has been done by other artists, Haystacks by Claude Monet or Van Gogh’s Postman series of portraits of Joseph Roulin for example. However, the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji were all carved as woodblock prints by a man in his seventies. To me, this speaks volumes about his dedication to his craft. The other examples of work from this series that I have seen are very beautiful but there are so many that I have not yet found. Information about the entire series seems to be difficult to find. I hope future students and users of this site can locate the other “views” associated with this series.


 * References**

Printed Sources:

Ainsworth, Mary A. //Japanese Woodblock Prints: A Catalogue of the Mary A. Ainsworth Collection//. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1984.

Marks, Andreas. //Japanese Woodblock Prints: Artists, Publishers and Masterworks 1680-1900//. North Clarendon, VT: Tuttle Publishing, 2010.

On-Line Sources:

Bull, David. //Encyclopedia of Woodblock Printmaking//. http://woodblock.com/encyclopedia/topics/toc_process.html

Cleveland Museum of Art “Collection Online” //Fuji in Clear Weather (from the series Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji)//. http://www.clevelandart.org/collections/collection%20online.aspx?pid=%7B91ADCD8F-992A-45A5-8599-70835467DF5E%7D&coid=2853871&clabel=highlights

Hokusai, Katsushika. //The Complete Works//. http://www.katsushikahokusai.org/

Japonisme “Explination” //Japonisme//. http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/cubist/613/japonisme.html

Wikipedia. //Hokusai//. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hokusai