Mt. Fuji

Fuji subjects occupied a central position in the Japanese print tradition from Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views onward, and Okumura's treatment within the shin-hanga mode would have emphasized atmospheric conditions over the iconic silhouette alone. His Unsodo prints of the mountain typically approach Fuji at a considered distance, allowing graduated sky tones — from deep indigo at the zenith through pale straw or rose at the horizon — to give the volcano its characteristic isolation. Snow on the upper slopes and the tonal contrast between cone and sky require careful registration across multiple blocks. Okumura's painter's sensibility translated readily to Fuji subjects, where the balance of geometric solidity against soft aerial gradation rewarded exactly the kind of tonal control that distinguished his work from more diagrammatic representations of the mountain.