Untitled

Kiyochika's untitled woodblock prints catalogued as abstract often resist easy classification because his atmospheric treatment absorbs topographic or figural content into the larger tonal drama. This print likely demonstrates his method of composing with masses of dark and light rather than with descriptive contour lines, a departure from the outline-first approach that defined the Utagawa school tradition in which most Meiji printmakers were trained. The use of prussian blue — a Western pigment introduced to Japan in the early nineteenth century and widely adopted by Hiroshige and Hokusai — is consistent with his palette for night and twilight scenes. His compositions of this type have been compared to the nocturne paintings of James McNeill Whistler, although the two artists worked independently.