Seasons by the Great Masters of Japanese Printmaking (box set)

Great travelers and nature enthusiasts, Hokusai (1760-1849) and Hiroshige (1797-1858) revolutionized the art of Japanese printmaking from the end of the 18th century, bringing the landscape genre to its peak. Populating their views with scenes of daily life, their works largely lent themselves to the theme of the seasons, which has been central to Japanese thought since the end of the Yamato period (250-710).

From the 6th century, poets took up the subject, associating it with a specific iconography: cherry blossoms. Autumn calls for contemplation of maple leaves and the moon. Winter arrives with the first snow... Artists, largely influenced by the Chinese model, later appropriated this simplified vision of the cycle of nature.

From the Heian period (794-1185), new genres related to the cycle of nature emerged, such as paintings of the four seasons, the twelve months of the year, and famous places. However, it was during the Edo period (1600-1868) that the theme of nature achieved its greatest success with printmaking, and more particularly with landscape, which was conducive to the representation of the seasons. With the illustrious Hokusai and Hiroshige as leaders, landscape artists captured all the variations of nature, focusing on snowy scenes as well as sunny cherry blossom gardens, on walkers battling the rain or admiring glowing maple leaves. This genre survived them, in Japan but also in the West where it had a considerable influence on the work of the Impressionists. It would be revived at the beginning of the 20th century, with the last great Japanese masters of landscape and printmaking, and Hasui (1883-1957) who, like Hokusai and Hiroshige, focused on the representation of the seasons.

Now, the immutable cycle of nature merges into a modern landscape, disrupted by the great changes of the second half of the 20th century. Hasui updated this timeless theme, which remains central to contemporary Japan's concerns.
This small box set celebrates this subject so dear to the Japanese by offering a selection of the most famous prints, masterpieces by the greatest landscape artists, from Hokusai's era to Hasui's, accompanied by an explanatory booklet.