Higashiyama Kaii

Another Mt. Fuji by Higashiyama Kaii (1906-1999).  He was a traditional Japanese artist, but he did study in Germany 1n 1933.  While studying at the University of Tokyo University of the Arts, he won Nitten, the highest art competition in Japan.

He is known for simplicity.  The picture below is one of the most famous ones.



I do like his Mt. Fuji.  It looks so simple and almost identical on both left and right sides.  But the clouds that occupy lower half of the picture make us think the mountain top is just a part of Mt. Fuji; we Japanese know this part of Mt. Fuji is only top 10 % of the mountain.  Mt. Fuji looks transparent in his drawing; to him Mt. Fuji is not a massive object. This painting reminds me of why we have so many legends based on Mt. Fuji.  One of the old sayings is that Fuji means immortal; people worshipped Mt. Fuji for its immortality.  Kaii's white does show this immortality.
Higashiyama Kaii also likes blue.