↗Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · early 1830s
South Wind, Clear Sky, from Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji
Katsushika Hokusai
Edward L. Whittemore Fund · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image licence: CC0 · Museum record & image source ↗
Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · late 1820s
Rori Hakucho Chojun (from the series 108 Heroes of the Novel Shui Hu Chuan)
- Date
- late 1820s
- Medium
- color woodblock print
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 38 x 25.7 cm (14 15/16 x 10 1/8 in.)
- Country / context
- Japan
- Movement / tradition
- Japanese art and printmaking
- Collection
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Attribution / role
- Museum attribution
- Pathway
- Japanese art and printmaking ↗
ABOUT THIS WORK
Rori Hakucho Chojun (from the series 108 Heroes of the Novel Shui Hu Chuan) is a representative work in our Utagawa Kuniyoshi guide. The catalogue records color woodblock print. Museum attribution. The linked artist guide places it alongside other works from the artist’s career.
Original educational overview · based on the linked museum recordPlace in the artist’s career
The late-1820s warrior uses concentrated bodily action; Ōmori shifts attention to place; the 1854 bay scene spreads narrative across a larger setting. Compare the relative scale of figures and landscape, the rhythm of outlines and colour blocks. These differences are compositional choices within woodblock printing, not a simple progression toward realism.
The artist’s practice
Artist-wide context; individual works may differ.
Media and surface
Colour prints include single sheets and ambitious connected multi-sheet designs.
Marks and structure
Energetic contours and dramatic bodies give warrior scenes force; landscapes distribute that energy differently.
Palette and light
Contrasting colour blocks clarify crowded action and separate figures from their settings.
A MOMENT TO LOOK
Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?
Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.Follow a connection.
Explore the tradition ↗↗
↗Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · 1833
Driving Rain at Shōno, from Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaidō
Utagawa Hiroshige
↗Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · c. 1793
The Flirtatious Type, from Ten Types in the Physiognomy of Women
Kitagawa Utamaro
↗Japan, Edo period (1615–1868) · c. 1830
A Low Tide Pentaptych
Utagawa Kuniyoshi