Kakegawa 1906

This woodblock print, Kakegawa, was made by Utagawa Hiroshige sometime before 1858. Look at this bridge; it's not just a way to get from one place to another, it's a stage where little dramas unfold. The artist has captured figures in motion, each with their own story, crossing from one side to the other. I can almost feel the wind and hear the water. The artist must have been really focused on making this image, and on all the steps that were needed to make a print like this. Japanese prints use a system of flat colour planes, organized within hard outlines. Hiroshige created a pictorial language of silhouettes, delicate lines, and blocks of colour. He was part of a larger dialogue among artists. The composition echoes earlier Chinese landscape painting, filtered through the lens of Japanese art. Artists are always talking to each other across time, borrowing and building on ideas, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be. Each mark, each color, is a form of embodied expression, inviting us to bring our own experiences to the canvas and find new meanings within it.