Komagatake refers to a stratovolcano in southern Hokkaido, the island where Maeda was born. The peak rises above Lake Onuma on the Oshima Peninsula and was active during portions of Maeda's lifetime, with a conical silhouette truncated by a ragged crater rim. A meisho-e treatment of this subject typically arranges the mountain across the upper register of the sheet, with the foreground filled by water, reedy shoreline, or pine. Bokashi gradation in the sky, applied by wiping pigment across damp washi with the baren, is the standard means of registering atmosphere in this kind of design. The print belongs to the recurring strand of Hokkaido motifs in Maeda's output — the volcanic ranges and birch forests of the north appear regularly in his work, in contrast to the Tokaido and Mount Fuji subjects that dominated earlier landscape printmaking. Working in both shin-hanga and sosaku-hanga modes, Maeda could approach a single peak from either tradition's vocabulary.
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Mt.Komagatake was created by Maeda Masao (前田政雄).
Mt.Komagatake depicts mountains.
