Woodblock prints (reprint) - Paper - Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) ”Yoshiwara rōchū-zu”吉原楼中図 Inside the Yoshiwara mansion- Japan - Showa period Technique: woodblock print See Art Institute of Chicago: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/21804/new-year-s-day-at-ogi-ya-brothel Katsushika Hokusai has become one of the most influential artists of Japan,inspiring such famous painters as Van Gogh etc..When Hokusai was 70-years-old and at the peak of his career,he began work on a series of woodblock prints.These prints became known as Thirty-six Views of Mt.Fuji. The focus of the print is a large boat,the prow of which cuts diagonally through the center of the composition.The otherwise still evening is disturbed by a man washing rice;the cast-off water startles two herons,which fly toward the left edge of the print.The scene is accomplished predominantly in imported Prussian blue,with pale accents of tan and green.Also known as Berlin blue,this color was so popular in the 1830s that the publisher Eijudö originally intended to use it for every key block in the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series,instead of the normal black.