60 AMAM.OBERLIN.EDU BROAD INFLUENCE OF THE EIGHT VIEWS Through its distinctive visual language, common elements of the Eight Views, such as composition style and recurring subjects, profoundly shaped Edo-period landscape prints. Artists adopted diagonal compositions to create depth, incorporated atmospheric effects like mist and snow, and featured details like descending geese and distant sails. These compositional strategies became widespread in Japanese landscape prints. This legacy is evident in works by masters like Hiroshige and his successor Hiroshige II, who built upon these techniques to create balanced compositions integrating human activity within natural settings. The artistic vocabulary of the Eight Views thus helped establish enduring conventions in Japanese landscape art. These prints also played a crucial role in shaping environmental consciousness in Edo-period Japan. By depicting the intimate relationship between humans and nature, the prints reinforced traditional Japanese concepts of nature as a source of both spiritual andmaterial sustenance. Today, visitors to Lake Biwa seek out the locations of the Eight Views of Ōmi as a way to engage with and appreciate the vast lake and its shores, and to appreciate the cultural and natural heritage of the region. UtagawaHiroshige II 二代目歌川広重 (Japanese, 1829–1869) DescendingGeese at Katata, fromthe series Eight Views of Ōmi, 1859 Color woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper MaryA. AinsworthBequest, 1950.1500 Hiroshige’s successor and son-in-law, Hiroshige II, adhered closely to his teacher’s style in landscape composition. Space is divided into clear foreground, middle ground, and background planes, linked by the implied diagonals of birds, trees, and shoreline. One common element in various versions of Descending Geese at Katata is the distinctive Ukimidō floating temple, the small pavilion on the lake. One still exists today at Mangetsu-ji temple in Katata. In the original Eight Views of Xiāoxiāng, descending geese carriedmany meanings related to the themes of exile and separation from civilization: the calls of the geese evoked the melancholy cries of displaced people; the birds migrating suggested scholars communicating by letters over long distances. In Japanese prints, the descending geese became more of a seasonal symbol of autumn migration and the coming of winter than a political symbol. The place name Katata evokes a long history of Japan’s greatest poets like Hitomaro and Basho celebrating the grandeur of Lake Biwa. In the Ōmi Eight Views series, a 31-syllable tanka poem from the early 1600s is conventionally paired with each view. The poem in the upper left of this print reads: Flying across numerous peaks and getting really close to Koshiji, yet, the wild geese cannot resist descending at Katata. —Attributed to Konoe Nobutada 近衛信尹 (1565-1614) —Translation by Matthi Forrer, Hiroshige: Prints and Drawings (1997).
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