The fleeting nature of life

Ukiyo-e which means "pictures of the floating world" is the name given to traditional Japanese woodblock prints that depict the fleeting, changing, and fragile nature of life.

The first Ukiyo-e reacched Europe through the Netherlands, the only country allowed to have trade relations with Japan at the end of the nineteenth century. All Japanese objects transported by Dutch shipping companies were packed in Ukiyo-e to protect them from shocks during transport. Used as packaging, these prints did not really have any artistic value in Japan, but they were very appreciated in Europe. The first of their collectors were artists such as Monet, Van Gogh and many others.

Hokusai is perhaps the most famous Japanese Ukiyo-e artist in Europe, notably with The Great Wave of Kanagawa and Views of Mount Fuji.

He influenced a large number of Impressionist artists such as Monet and Gauguin in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Hiroshige, another master of Ukiyo-e, greatly influenced the style of painter Vincent Van Gogh.

" Japonism was associated with modernity. To be considered as a "modern" painter, it was therefore necessary to assimilate and use ideas from Japan. " - Marc Restellini in the book Vincent Van Gogh, Rêves de Japon

In the Japanese Alps, I visited the Hokusai Museum in Obuse, a small village not far from Nagano. The master spent a few years there when he was eighty years old and being where he lived, I realize how much the natural environment greatly inspired his work.

I really like Ukiyo-e because they manage to convey the atmosphere of the moment and the state of mind of the artist who created them.

One of the goals of my stay in the Japanese Alps was to discover these landscapes that until then I had only seen in some of my favorite Ukiyo-e.