Dragon Rising up to Heaven - Ogata Gekkō

From the dark coils of storm cloud, a dragon rises. Scales of grey-blue catch what little light exists in a sky almost entirely consumed by shadow. Above it, Mount Fuji emerges from the mist — white-capped, still, indifferent — its clean diagonal slope cutting across the upper half of the composition in near-silence. The contrast is the whole point: the chaos of the ascending creature against the eternal calm of the mountain.

Ryūshōten — "Dragon Rising up to Heaven" — is Gekkō's most famous composition, and one of the most arresting images in Meiji-era printmaking. It belongs to the series Gekko Zuihitsu (月耕随筆, "Miscellaneous Sketches by Gekkō"), published in November 1897 by Matsuki Heikichi. The composition also appears — with a much smaller dragon — in Gekkō's One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, but this large-format ōban version is the definitive one.

Ogata Gekkō (1859–1920) was a self-taught artist who began his career decorating porcelain and rickshaws before moving to woodblock prints. His style often imitated the brushstroke — as is immediately visible in the smoke surrounding the dragon here — a quality that sets his work apart from the more graphic conventions of the ukiyo-e tradition. He was one of the great ukiyo-e woodblock print artists of the late 19th century, and one of the first Japanese artists to gain a significant international reputation, exhibiting at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and the Paris Exposition of 1900. 

The cartouche in the upper right reads 月耕随筆 (Gekko Zuihitsu) in the coral-red panel, and 龍昇天 (Ryūshōten) beneath it in black — title and series together framing the image with quiet authority.

Series: Gekko Zuihitsu 月耕随筆 (Miscellaneous Sketches by Gekkō)
Date: November 1897
Publisher: Matsuki Heikichi 松木平吉
Format: Ōban woodblock print

Museum-quality reproduction printed on thick archival paper. Shipped in a rigid protective tube, ready to frame.