la vie en rose

The passion for mountains and mountaineering has a long tradition among Japanese printmakers. The ascetic Hiroshi Yoshida is maybe the most famous one. He was a passionate mountaineer and world traveler who had portrayed his personal experience in many woodblock prints of mountain landscapes.

During his short stop-over in Europe Hiroshi Yoshida had made sketches for two famous prints of mountain views in Switzerland - Mt. Matterhorn at daylight and a second version at night time - both made in 1925.

His son Toshi Yoshida had inherited his father's love for the mountains. Also quite a few of the sosaku hanga artists were avid trekkers like the arduous Azechi Umetaro or the less ambitious hiker Masao Maeda ("The finest panoramas are down in the middle heights.").

Passionate hikers and mountaineers know that each mountain region has its own individual character. A mountain landscape in Nepal is different from Switzerland. And the mountains in South Tyrol have their own specific personality. 1

かたつぶりそろそろ登れ富士の山
katatsuburi soro-soro nobore fuji no yama

little snail
inch by inch, climb
Mount Fuji!

The highest and most sacred of Japan's peaks, Mount Fuji, was the home of the great kami-sama or gods. Buddhists believed it was a mystical gateway between earth and heaven. Climbing it was a sacred pilgrimage. However, not everyone could make the climb. Therefore, imitation Mount Fujis (small, sculpted hills) were built at various temples so that one could reap spiritual benefit by climbing them. Issa's snail is climbing one of these pseudo-mountains. 2

it fascinates me, how if an artist is about to represent a mountain range, they will often focus on the same peak. as in the grand canyon. here is the astonishing 'horn' of the 'matter' (meadow) -- it's unmistakable. then there's the awfully similar 'yari' (spear) gataga (mountain). and the two-peaked landmark in the jungfraubahn (young woman's way).

and how similar are the styles of the western posters and the eastern prints.
were the aims of both as similar as they might seem? as we've seen, many of the prints coming out of japan, particularly during the meiji era, were 'selling' a japan of the past. and the travel posters were often selling similar dreams as well.

it has been said, Switzerland doesn’t exist but is rather an invention of the Swiss graphic designers. 4 as long as dreams sell better than reality, i guess the world will continue to be rendered for us in rose.

the friday quiz

(how often does it happen, the only result that google finds for your search is a jstor article? okay, that happens a lot. but how often do you

suddenly realise that you have that issue of that magazine! from 1993 -- i used to have a subscription -- ! and it doesn't appear to ever have been read! see what doing this blog is making me do: READ MY OWN BOOKS AND MAGAZINES !!!!)

there is one thing that all of the artists featured here have in common.




they started 'japonisme'? you guess. well, that's a great guess as steinlen, grasset, and vallotton were certainly amongst its earliest practitioners.



the missing link, perhaps, between the pre-raph- aelite and the art nouveau movements? well, i can certainly see the connection in styles and subjects.

or perhaps the originators of impres- sionism? well again, yeah; i can certainly see your reasoning.



surrealism? oh come on, yes, i get why you say that, for some of them, easily, but my initial question specified all.



and the drench- ingly, over- whelming beauty of the work, the variety of wonderful interpre- tations of japonisme from these artists, all of them, and more, many more.

click that link and you have your answer. isn't it a fascinating surprise! (or did you guess?!)