Hira, from the series Eight Views of Lake Biwa (ōmi hakkei)
by Ito Shinsui
- Series:
- Eight Views of Lake Biwa
- Date:
- 1917
- Medium:
- Woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
by Ito Shinsui
Hira, from the series Eight Views of Lake Biwa (Omi hakkei), is a 1917 landscape woodblock print by Ito Shinsui, held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The composition belongs to one of Shinsui's earliest and most important landscape series, conceived when he was barely twenty years old and already working with publisher Watanabe Shozaburo on the project that would help define the emerging shin-hanga movement. The Eight Views of Omi was a classical poetic theme rooted in Chinese painting traditions, transplanted to the shores of Lake Biwa near Kyoto, and Shinsui reinterpreted it for a twentieth-century audience that valued atmospheric mood over narrative incident. The Hira view focuses on the Hira mountain range west of the lake, traditionally associated with falling evening snow, and Shinsui translates that classical conceit into soft tonal washes, layered gradations of indigo and gray, and a quiet expanse of water that pushes the eye toward the distant ridgeline. While shin-hanga is often discussed through its bijin-ga portraits of beautiful women, with which Ito Shinsui became closely identified later in his career, this Lake Biwa view shows the landscape side of the same movement, where Watanabe's collaborative print system used traditional Edo-period carving and printing techniques to render a modern, Western-influenced sense of light and depth. The Art Institute's holdings of this series allow comparison across all eight views and document how the young Shinsui handled subdued color, deliberately reduced linework, and the lyrical melancholy that Japanese audiences expected from the Omi tradition. Source: Art Institute of Chicago, artwork no. 34667.
November 1939
Color woodblock print; oban
October 1939
Color woodblock print
September 1939
Color woodblock print
1939
Color woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Hira, from the series Eight Views of Lake Biwa (ōmi hakkei) was created by Ito Shinsui (伊東深水) in 1917.
Yes — Hira, from the series Eight Views of Lake Biwa (ōmi hakkei) is part of the Eight Views of Lake Biwa series by Ito Shinsui.
Hira, from the series Eight Views of Lake Biwa (ōmi hakkei) depicts eight views (hakkei).
