Gasshôzukuri Farmhouses in Snow / Saitô Kiyoshi
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About this Item
Record Details
- Accession Number
- 1994/2.4
- Title
- Gasshôzukuri Farmhouses in Snow
- Artist
- Saitô Kiyoshi
- Artist Nationality
- Japanese
- Artist Life Dates
- (active 1907 - 1997)
- Medium and Support
- color woodblock print on paper
- Object Creation Date
- circa 1958
- Object Creation Place
- Asia (continent)
- Japan (nation)
- Creation Place 1
- Asia (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- Japan (nation)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Honer
- Style/Group/Movement
- Sôsaku hanga
- Inscription
- Signed in pencil, l.l.: Kiyoshi Saito
- Seal on verso in black ink, l.r.
- Dimensions
- 28.3 cm x 43 cm (11 1/8 in. x 16 15/16 in.)
- Century
- 20th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Primary Object Type
- color print
- Secondary Object Classification
- Secondary Object Type
- landscape
- Physical Description
- A native of Sakamoto in Fukushima Prefecture, the artist here depicts his far northern hometown with the snow-covered imagery to present a view of traditional Japan in a innovative and modern way.
- Subject Matter
- The artist was a member of the Creative Print (sôsaku hanga) movement, which played a strategic role in the transformation of American-Japanese relations during the Cold War. In the decades before and after the Second World War Americans were receiving conflicting messages about Japan, which was successively presented as an exotic land of geisha, an increasingly evil adversary of America and its culture, and finally as a much-needed ally against communism in Asia. Post-war, the people of the United States and Japan were encouraged by their governments to embrace one another as friends (although with America occupying Japan until the 1950s, this friendship was less than equal) and art was considered an attractive vehicle for promoting this political goal. Already popular among occupying forces, the work of Creative Print artists appealed to the larger American audience because it both resonated with nostalgic pre-war conceptions of Japan and was infused with a modern sensibility.
- This modern presentation of traditional Japan is one that the versatile Saitô captured masterfully in his work. Famous places in Japan were one of the most popular subjects of Edo (1615–1868) and Meiji (1868–1912) period woodblock prints, and Creative Print artists strove to represent them in innovative ways. This imagery of Japan is one that drew on the past yet was visually fresh.
- Secondary Keywords
- settlement area
- associated concepts
- buildings and the land
- dwellings
- earth sciences concepts
- houses by location
- houses by location or context
- landscapes (environments)
- natural landscapes
- objects we use
- people and culture
- physical sciences concepts
- plants
- precipitation
- residential structures
- rural houses
- scientific concepts
- settlements and landscapes
- single built works
- single built works by function
- single built works by specific type
- vegetation and vegetation components
- vegetation components
- visual works
- visual works by subject type
- weather and related phenomena
- weather-related phenomena
- woody plants
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 1433 x 931
- File Size
- 130 KB
- Record
- 1994/2.4
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1994-sl-2.4/1994_2.4.jpg
Rights and Permissions
Related Links
IIIF
- Manifest
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/musart:1994-SL-2.4:1994_2.4.JPG
Cite this Item
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- Full citation
-
"Gasshôzukuri Farmhouses in Snow; Saitô Kiyoshi." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1994-sl-2.4/1994_2.4.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 28, 2024.