context: painting > prints > subjects > places

Places: Hiroshige vs Hokusai on Realism

Hiroshige's Evening Snow At Kanbara

An interesting note from Hiroshige, contrasting his Hundred Views of Mount Fuji with Hokusai's: "[Hokusai] earlier published a set of The Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji. In this, the old man* had drawn grasses, trees, birds, animals, and other things in his usual talented brush. Also, he had drawn people and places and their customs. Filled with the power of his brush, his work focused upon making things interesting. For instance, he manipulated Fuji as he liked. My work differs. I simply reproduce sketches of what I had seen before my eyes. This small set of prints is too limited to draw everything in all its details. So there are many places where I had to abbreviate things, but as much as possible I made the compositions true to life. For those who can take long trips, please bring this book along and compare my scenes to the actual scenes. Please forgive the clumsiness of my technique."

Hokusai's Reflection Of Fuji In The Lake

* This should not be read as derogatory - Hokusai was signing his works at this time as 'the old man mad about drawing'.

I think the two images here make the point, at least to some extent. Hiroshige has simplified forms, but he did essentially reproduce nature, to very beautiful effect - except, except: do the rooves and the mountains really mirror each other so happily? I think there is room to suspect a bit of cheating. Nonetheless, the difference is large: Hokusai frequently distorted the real world wildly and obviously - the angle of the reflection on show here is nonsensical (but compositionally dazzling!), and the reflected Fuji has snow on its peak! (I think this is a really poor version of this print, by the way.)