Sunrise at the Port of Kobe 1935

Fujishima Takeji painted Sunrise at the Port of Kobe in oil, working those strokes wet into wet. There’s a generosity to the painting, a visible process. You can see it in the choppy sky, the way the pinks, yellows, and violets are dragged across the surface, as if the painter were trying to catch hold of something fleeting. The surface is built up with visible brushstrokes, nothing is blended, all is separate, but unified through the limited palette. It’s like looking at a memory, or a feeling, where distinct elements blur into one another. Look at the boats, they’re not crisply rendered, but suggested, implied, which lends the painting a dreamy quality. It reminds me a little bit of Whistler or Turner, the way the atmosphere takes precedence over the details. You know, art isn't about precision, it’s about capturing the essence of a thing. Sunrise at the Port of Kobe does that beautifully.