Lake Mashū
- Date:
- 1961
- Medium:
- Woodblock print, ink and color on paper
- Dimensions:
- 48.3 × 62.7 cm
- Edition:
- Self-printed
- Source:
$500–$5,000. Common prints: $500–$1,500. Key value factors: Kitaoka's refined style has a modest but loyal collector base.
Lake Mashū, one of Japan's deepest caldera lakes in eastern Hokkaido, is rendered here with Kitaoka's characteristic economy of means: still water reduced to a luminous horizontal plane, forested caldera walls compressed into bold silhouettes. Kitaoka visited Hokkaido repeatedly throughout the early 1960s, drawn to its vast, relatively unspoiled landscapes that offered clear formal motifs for his increasingly abstract approach. The print's restrained palette and hard-edged geometry exemplify how he translated the sosaku-hanga ideal of direct personal expression into a modernist formal language.
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Woodblock print
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Lake Mashū was created by Fumio Kitaoka (北岡文雄) in 1961.
Lake Mashū depicts landscapes and rivers & lakes.
Lake Mashū measures 48.3 × 62.7 cm.
