Celebrated Waterfall 1820 - 1830

Yanagawa Shigenobu created this woodblock print, Celebrated Waterfall, in nineteenth century Japan. Consider how the print flattens the landscape, emphasizing the design of the image over a naturalistic representation. During this period, woodblock prints became central to a new kind of visual culture in urban centers like Edo, modern Tokyo. Publishers and artists met the rising demand for images, fueling the growth of a commercial art market. This print may have been produced as part of a series of celebrated landscapes. Artists often responded to a growing interest in tourism and travel to famous sites in Japan. They offered the urban public a sense of connection to sites far beyond their everyday lives. As art historians, we can look to business records, government documents, and literature of the time, to understand the institutions that shaped art production and consumption. In doing so, we gain insight into art as an element of social and economic life.