Chiryu 1906

This is Chiryu, a woodblock print made by Utagawa Hiroshige sometime in the 1800s. Look at these colours! The muted blues and browns, the way the landscape is built up through thin strokes. It's about a scene, but it's also so much about the making. I keep coming back to those grazing horses. Each one is a collection of strokes, and each has a different attitude. You can almost feel the rough texture of the paper, the way the ink sits on the surface. It's like Hiroshige is letting us into his process, showing us how he builds up an image from simple marks. The horses are tethered to wooden posts, but the scene doesn't feel restrictive; it’s light and open. You see this kind of mark-making in other Japanese artists of this time, like Hokusai, but there’s something about Hiroshige's quiet observation that really gets to me. To me, it's a reminder that art isn't about perfect representation, it’s about capturing a feeling, a moment, a way of seeing the world.