Riverside
- Date:
- 1935
- Medium:
- Woodblock print
- Format:
- Oban
- Publisher:
- Watanabe Shozaburo
- Source:
- Art of Japan
Description
A view along a riverbank provides the setting for this 1935 oban woodblock print, one of Komura Settai's less frequent excursions into pure landscape. The composition balances the horizontal flow of the river against vertical elements, whether trees, buildings, or figures, along its banks. Settai's training in nihonga painting and his study of Edo-period prints both inform his approach to landscape, combining observed topography with a compositional formality rooted in Japanese pictorial tradition. The riverside setting was a rich subject in Japanese art, associated with leisure, commerce, and the liminal boundary between urban civilization and natural wilderness. Settai's interpretation favors stillness and spatial clarity over the bustling activity that earlier artists might have emphasized.
More Prints by Komura Settai
More Landscapes Prints
Lake Kugushi in Wakasa Province (Wakasa Kugushiko), from the series Souvenirs of Travel I (Tabi miyage dai isshu)"
Wakasa Kugushiko
1920
Color woodblock print; oban
Autumn Maple Leaves at Takao, from the album Eight Views of Kyoto (Kyôto hakkei)
Woodblock print
The Beach at Kaiganji in Sanuki Province (Sanuki Kaiganji no hama), from the series "Collection of Views of Japan II, Kansai Edition (Nihon fukei shu II Kansai hen)"
1934
Color woodblock print; oban
Tea Kettle, section of a sheet from the series "Mirror of Stone Rubbings of Views of the Provinces" (Kohon meihitsu ishizuri kagami)
n.d.
Woodblock print; ishizuri-e, section of harimaze sheet
Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
Riverside was created by Komura Settai (小村雪岱) in 1935.
Riverside was published by Watanabe Shozaburo (1935).
Riverside depicts landscapes and rivers & lakes.