In the early years of ukiyo-e, landscapes were not a popular subject, being a “far less dominant” genre than images of actors, beauties or everyday life scenes.Yonemura 2002, 286 In early prints, landscape was “a prop”Calza 2005, 196 or backdrop to the human content of the picture.Newland 2005, 433 As art historian Tadashi Kobayashi notes, “Landscape ukiyo-e prints by their very nature usually reflect the artist’s conception of natural settings as a stage upon which human scenes are enacted.”Kobayashi 1992, 44 This is evident in these two prints by Sadamasu, where the landscape provides the impetus and scene for the human action dominating the image.
