Prussian blue pigment was introduced to Japan by Portuguese traders in the 1700s. It is one of the first synthetic pigments ever created, and although it originated in Berlin, it soon its popularity increased throughout the globe.
This new strong blue colour exploded onto the printing woodblocks of artists across Edo, creating a print genre called aizuri-e (藍摺絵), a significant development in Japanese art.
Prints were mostly created using shades of blue, if another colour was used it was usually red, which at the time was still made completely from natural pigments, most notably, safflower and crushed bugs. The variations in shade of blue were created by either superimposing parts of the design when printing or via the popular woodblock printing gradation technique bokashi (ぼかし), enhancing the beauty of Japanese woodblock prints.
Series like Katsushika Hokusai’s Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji were initially advertised as aizuri-e because of its heavy use of blue and other strong pigments.
Most notably, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, the most famous ukiyoe across the globe, is a classic example of aizuri-e in Japanese woodblock prints.
Many other famous artists also used the aizuri-e technique such as Utagawa Kunisada, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Utagawa Sadahide and Keisai Eisen. After the Edo period, the popularity of aizuri-e dwindled, however, artists such as Tsuchiya Koitsu, Koson Ohara and Hasui Kawase did employ this technique at times.
Due to the synthetic nature of prussian blue, these prints which were largely created between the 1820s and 1840s are largely still vibrant, while most of the other pigments such as the natural reds mentioned earlier have faded in most artworks, making these pieces valuable Japanese antiques.
