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A Picture of Change for a World in Constant Motion - The New York Times

nytimes.com · 1,769 words · saved by 1 readers

What a masterpiece of Japanese printmaking teaches us about the way images circulate.

Early spring. A heavy sky. Chilly, but not bitter. We’re near Suruga Bay, on the south coast of Honshu; maybe you can taste the salt in the air. The year is 1830 or so: the waning days of the Tokugawa shogunate. And from the northwest, a wind is blowing with the force of a steamroller. It’s not his most famous work, but this is my favorite woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai: “Ejiri in Suruga Province.” It’s the 10th image in his renowned cycle “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji.” I love it most for how it captures an instant, with an exactitude that feels almost photographic. Here. Now. A coun

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