Fuji and Canna

Fuji and Canna juxtaposes the silhouette of Mount Fuji with a foreground stand of canna lilies, the broad-leafed, vivid red or yellow flower that blooms in Japanese gardens through high summer. The pairing belongs to a long tradition of Fuji prints in which the mountain is framed by a seasonal botanical motif, but Ohtsu's choice of canna — a flower introduced from the Americas in the late nineteenth century — gives the composition a modern, summer-garden register rather than a classical one. The print likely places the canna foliage and blooms across the lower third in saturated reds and greens, with Fuji rendered behind in cooler tones and bokashi gradations softening the snowcap into the sky. The canna leaves provide an opportunity for broad flat color and confident block carving, while Fuji is held back in tonal restraint. The work illustrates Ohtsu's willingness to combine the iconic with the domestic and the contemporary.