Red Fuji

Red Fuji situates Rome's abstract woodblock practice in direct dialogue with Katsushika Hokusai's Gaifū Kaisei from the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, in which the volcano appears suffused with dawn light in warm crimson and orange. Rome's version, working abstractly rather than representationally, likely distills the Hokusai composition to its essential formal elements: a large geometric mass in red-orange pigment against a contrasting sky field. The decision to engage this canonical image reflects an American mokuhanga artist's awareness of the tradition he works within, while his abstract approach asserts the medium's capacity to operate independently of pictorial convention. The mineral pigments available in the Japanese palette — particularly bengara iron oxide reds — are well-suited to this subject.