The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Japanese artist Hokusai Katsushika is to be displayed at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei from Saturday as part of an ukiyo-e exhibition.
Organized by Taipei-based Media Sphere Communications and Japan’s Kobe Shimbun, The History of Ukiyo-e (江湖風華-五大浮世繪師展) contains 146 works by five artists.
In addition to Katsushika, the other artists are Hiroshige Utagawa, Utamaro Kitagawa, Sharaku Toshusai and Kuniyoshi Utagawa, the organizers said.
Photo: CNA
Three of the original works were unboxed yesterday — The Great Wave off Kanagawa and South Wind, Clear Sky from Katsushika’s “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” series, as well as Hiroshige Utagawa’s Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake from the series “One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.”
The works arrived in Taipei on Sunday, said Ryuki Ohtani, a representative from Kobe Shimbun.
South Wind, Clear Sky, which is also known as Red Fuji, is one of 46 works in the “Fuji” series, Ohtani said.
The woodblock print portrays a view of Mount Fuji from Japan’s Yamanashi Prefecture, he said, adding that the use of red in the work became more “exaggerated” due to its popularity during the Edo period.
With its bold composition, The Great Wave off Kanagawa captures stillness and movement, he said.
As a person would have had to brave wind and rain at sea to witness a view like the one depicted in the print, it is unknown whether the artist saw such a scene, Ohtani said.
Sudden Shower Over Shin-Ohashi Bridge and Atake is symbolic of the Japonism art movement, Ohtani said, adding that it inspired Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh to create his own version in oil paint.
The exhibition runs through April 19, although two works by Katsushika — South Wind, Clear Sky and The Ghost of Kohada Koheiji — would only be displayed until April 6, the organizers said.
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