Shinjuku Gyoen National Park 1949

This print of Shinjuku Gyoen National Park by Unichi Hiratsuka uses a bold yellow to set the scene for an exquisitely rendered landscape. Hiratsuka's process is laid bare; he isn’t trying to hide the woodblock’s graphic, linear quality, and he celebrates its materiality. Look at how he uses hard, dark outlines to create a simplified composition. The flat color brings to mind the work of the Post-Impressionists, especially the landscapes of Paul Gauguin, but unlike Gauguin, Hiratsuka shies away from any kind of spiritual interpretation, instead letting the landscape be itself. Notice how he uses many small, vertical lines of the same color to create the sense of reflection in the water. Hiratsuka seemed to be less concerned with conveying a sense of depth or realism and more invested in the pure joy of image-making. His prints are conversations between tradition and modernism, representation and abstraction.