UKIYO-E — WOODBLOCK PRINT — HOKUSAI HIROSHIGE

VISUAL STYLE: Japanese woodblock print in the tradition of Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige. The flat planes of colour separated by precise cut lines. Mount Fuji appearing as a constant in a changing world. The observation of weather, season, and moment as subject matter for serious art.

COLOUR PALETTE: Prussian blue (#003153) — Bero-ai, the specific blue that Hokusai adopted from Dutch chemistry and which transformed Japanese print. Pale cream (#FFFFF0) for sky and snow. Deep forest green (#1A4A1A) for pine and cedar. Warm ochre (#CC7722) for autumn foliage and sandy ground. The palette of wood grain, mineral pigment, and rice paper.

COMPOSITION: Flat planes of colour in the foreground, middle ground, and distance — no perspective, but strong sense of depth through overlap and scale. Diagonal compositions that push energy across the picture plane.

NATURAL PHENOMENA: Wave crests that curl into claws. Snow falling through still air. Mist obscuring the base of mountains. Hiroshige's rain — diagonal lines of varying weight creating the specific visual experience of precipitation.

FIGURE: Small in the landscape. Mount Fuji is always larger than the human beings who observe it. The figure establishes scale and human relationship to nature without becoming the subject.

BORDER: The print border in its correct format — cartouche for the series title, cartouche for the individual title, publisher's mark.

No photographs. No gradients within colour fields. No Western perspective. Only flat colour, woodblock line, and the specific observation of weather and mountain throughout.