Village on the Yoshino River, illustration for The Brocade Shell (Nishiki-gai), from the series "A Matching Game with Genroku-period Poem Shells (Genroku kasen kai awase)"
Medium
Color woodblock print with metallic pigments; surimono shikishiban
Dimensions
20.5 × 17.8 cm (8 1/8 × 7 1/16 in.)
Classification
woodblock print
Department
Arts of Asia
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
23538
Art Historical Context
Katsushika Hokus, the legendary Japanese artist renowned for his ukiyo-e woodblock prints like *The Great Wave off Kanag*, created *Village on the Yoshino* in 1821. This intimate color woodblock print served as an illustration for "The Brocade Shell (ishiki-gai)" in the series *A Matching with Genroku-period Poem Shells (Genroku kasen kai awase. Drawing from the traditional Japanese shell-matching game *kai-awase*, the series paired famous poems from the Genroku era (1688–1704)—a golden age of Edo-period literature—with evocative landscapes, blending poetry and visual artistry. Printed in the...
About the Artist
Katsushika Hokusai · 1760–1849
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) stands as one of history's most influential artists, a Japanese master who revolutionized the ukiyo-e woodblock print tradition and profoundly shaped Western art. Born in the Katsushika district of Edo (modern-day Tokyo) to an artisan family, Hokusai lived through nearly nine decades of extraordinary creative evolution, adopting over thirty different artistic names t...