Chiriu 1855

Curator: Let's discuss "Chiriu," a woodblock print made around 1855 by Utagawa Hiroshige. This work, rendered in a style known as Ukiyo-e, immediately strikes me with its pastoral sensibility. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: My eye is drawn to the expressive quality of the line and how the block printing emphasizes texture and grain in the trees—you can almost feel the coarseness of the bark. The materiality speaks to its context. Curator: Absolutely. The technique is crucial here. Hiroshige uses the woodblock medium to its fullest, a democratic medium making art accessible to a wide public. These works often depicted landscapes imbued with cultural and political significance, and functioned as guides to popular sites. Editor: And that access involved skilled labor! The collaboration required to produce these prints often goes unacknowledged—from the artist, the carver of the blocks, the printer, and even the publishers involved. These prints weren't merely ‘art;’ they were commodities, enmeshed within a network of production. Curator: I see that, definitely. Consider how this piece plays into broader themes of travel and leisure that became increasingly popular among the emerging middle class during the Edo period. The figures traveling along the path—the subject in themselves--underscore that developing ethos of travel. Editor: I'm struck by the trees dominating the scene, their exaggerated forms achieved through carving the block to express character. This highlights the artist's hand through labor while revealing an aesthetic choice based on manipulating the inherent qualities of the wood itself. Curator: I agree. We can read this image as indicative of an idealized countryside retreat—the rolling landscape becomes a projection of societal desires for respite and tranquility. Editor: Perhaps—or a commodified view that romanticizes the arduous process of living off that land. The woodblock is itself an intervention upon nature, an industrial reframing of the landscape for consumption. Curator: Fascinating. “Chiriu” offers us so much to think about in how we view not only art history, but history at large. Editor: Indeed—a humble print that contains a wealth of considerations, once we tease out the relationship between nature, production and artistic skill!