Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi

Description

Mount Fuji and Lake Kawaguchi is part of a series of prints of Mount Fuji made by Okada Koichi in the 1950s for woodblock print publisher Unsodo. Like the other prints in the series, it depicts Mount Fuji, along with a river, lake, or the sea. In the current design it is Lake Kawaguchi, one of the five lakes around Mount Fuji. The design makes it seem as if one is looking past the branches of a cherry tree, an often-used technique by woodblock artists to enhance the experience of depth. Far away is Mount Fuji, high in the sky and reflected in the calm lake. Judging by the blossoming cherry tree, it must be the very end of winter, or, more likely, early spring. The colors of the cherry blossoms resonate with the colors of Mount Fuji and its reflection, in what is the calmest composition in the series.