Author Description

These five little pieces, each based on a Hokusai print, make use of various conventions of traditional Japanese music, such as the (differing) forms of Japanese 'soft' and 'hard' scales. These five little pieces, each based on a Hokusai print, make use of various conventions of traditional Japanese music, such as the (differing) forms of Japanese 'soft' and 'hard' scales. An area of the Japanese ukiyo-e or 'pictures of the floating world' is made up of kacho-ga -literally, 'flower-and-bird pictures'.The idea underlying kacho-ga was not a simple reproduction of nature, but an expression of subjective emotion, giving pleasure to the refined mind that delights in the contemplation of natural beauty. The artist Hokusai, together with his great contemporary, Hiroshige, brought this art to its highest form. Includes: Cormorant in the Snow (Cormorants dans la neige) - Carp in a Waterfall (Carpes dans une chute d'eau) - Azaleas and Cuckoo (Azalées et Coucou) - Peonies and Butterflies (Pivoines et papillons) - Frog on an Old Tile (Grenouille sur une vieille tuile)