Kasuga Plain 1909 - 1910

Kamisaka Sekka made this lovely scene, Kasuga Plain, with woodblock printmaking, a method which always seems to me like a very slow form of drawing. The layering of colour and texture in this piece is gorgeous. I really enjoy the way the light green plain meets the darker green of the trees and how this echoes the lighter sky behind. The brown deer add a sense of playfulness, like sketched-in doodles against a serene landscape. Take a look at the bark of the trees, the flat brown colour against the vivid green. This contrast makes me think of the dialogue between abstraction and representation. You can see it in a lot of Japanese art, that balance between something real and something totally invented. Sekka's work makes me think a little of Hiroshige, especially in the flattening of forms. But Sekka also embraces a more modern, graphic style, so that it feels like a conversation across generations of artists. Ultimately, art is not about definitive answers, but about embracing the questions.