The First Month c. 1793

Curator: Looking at Hokusai's color-on-paper print from around 1793, titled "The First Month," the delicate application of ink and watercolor creates a truly intimate feel. The scene captures two figures interacting. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: I’m struck by the textures. The patterns on their robes feel almost tactile, contrasting with the flatter background. The interplay between the decorative and the everyday here feels charged with potential for social reading. Curator: The prints are really remarkable for capturing the everyday so beautifully. Considering its social context, this was during the Edo period, when printmaking really blossomed, owing to advances in printing technology. Artisans could mass-produce images, making art accessible to a wider audience. Editor: Exactly, and Hokusai being Hokusai, that accessibility came with some seriously innovative craftsmanship. I see how he’s exploiting the qualities of ink and paper – that bleed, the layering, the sense of depth he manages to achieve despite the flatness of the picture plane. Curator: Yes, he balances depth and flatness well. It also reveals much about the culture, these prints reflected and, in some ways, constructed the image of urban life. Here, for example, we see these individuals engaged in a leisurely pursuit perhaps related to the New Year, suggesting a society with disposable income and time for aesthetic appreciation. Editor: This piece complicates that easy conclusion for me. Note the labour evident in the making of each impression. We have to recognize the multiple hands and processes in this art's manufacture and distribution to appreciate what is going on here politically. Curator: An interesting and pertinent distinction. The tension between artistry and industry, individual expression, and the cultural forces at play really enriches our appreciation of Hokusai's print. Editor: Precisely! It invites us to question our assumptions and look beneath the surface of everyday beauty, connecting labor, materials, consumption, and society's reception. Curator: Thinking of that balance is important. This exploration of "The First Month" highlights how one image can be a point of cultural exchange and interpretation through production, consumption, and dissemination. Editor: Indeed. Hokusai gives us not just an image, but an ongoing conversation about art’s role in reflecting, and also making, our world.