Untitled

This untitled woodblock print reflects Kiyochika's sustained investigation of fire and artificial illumination as printmaking subjects. Fires, conflagrations, and the industrial smoke of Meiji-era factories appear throughout his oeuvre, and the abstract rendering of such scenes requires the printer to work with unusually warm pigments — ochres, vermilions, and reds — against dark grounds. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation is particularly important in these fire scenes, as the glow of a blaze does not terminate sharply but diffuses into surrounding darkness. Kiyochika's carvers and printers developed techniques for conveying this diffusion through layered printing, achieving effects that earlier [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) practitioners had not attempted.