Technique: nishikie, Colour woodcut, size: (mm. 364x240).
Publisher: Unsodo
Engraver: Nagashima Michio
Printer: Ichimura
Published by Shobisha in 1970
A splendid work with excellent colors. Printed on Japanese paper. In perfect condition, with excellent margins all around, perfectly executed bokashi shading in the baren sujizuri style, and clear key lines.
The small cut in the lower right corner is not damage to the print, but a guideline known as a kento, used to correctly align the wooden blocks used to apply each different color.
Koichi Okada was born in 1907 in Tokyo, studied under Ishii Hakutei and Arishima Ikuma, and was a member of the Issuikai art group. Okada is known for his beautifully detailed woodblock prints depicting Mount Fuji and is considered a true master of the Shin-Hanga movement.
Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi is part of a series of prints dedicated to Mount Fuji that Okada Koichi created in the 1950s for the woodblock print publisher Unsodo. Like the other prints in the series, it depicts Mount Fuji alongside a water feature. In some cases, it is the sea, but in this case, it is one of the five lakes at the foot of Mount Fuji, Lake Kawaguchi.
The composition gives the impression of observing the landscape through the branches of a cherry tree, a device often used by woodblock artists to accentuate the effect of depth. In the distance, high in the sky, Mount Fuji looms, reflected in the calm lake. From the cherry blossoms, one can deduce that it is late winter or, more likely, early spring. The colors of the cherry blossoms resonate with those of Mount Fuji and its reflection, making this perhaps the calmest and most serene composition of the entire series.