Last year a print of “Under the Wave off Kanagawa,” the near-ubiquitous image by Katsushika Hokusai better known as “The Great Wave,” sold at auction for $1.6 million, a record for the artist.
In the 1830s, when it was made, a woodblock print in Edo—now Tokyo—cost roughly the same as a bowl of noodles.
Produced in large quantities for a popular market, these affordable images brought the country’s landmarks and natural wonders to audiences eager to experience them through artists’ eyes.
“Human / Nature: 150 Years of Japanese Landscape Prints,” a new exhibition opening on Dec. 3 at the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, presents some 70 of these works, from 19th-century classics like “The Great Wave” to late-20th-century prints by artists in Japan and the Pacific Northwest.
“Human imagination has been shaped by nature and the landscape,” says exhibition curator Helen Swift.