This painting depicts Mount Fuji as viewed from across the Uchiura Bay in Izu, Shizuoka Prefecture, with Awashima Island on the left and Shigedera area on the right. The artist must have occupied a high viewpoint, possibly in Mito, where the Uchiura Bay and Mount Fuji can be seen. The bushes in the foreground on the left direct the viewer’s eyes to the red sky on the west. The orangey-red clouds floating above Mount Fuji as well as those  owing towards the right edge of the painting carefully capture the fleeting glamourous glow of the sunset.

The graceful form of Mount Fuji, viewed distantly from the mountain in Izu, had inspired Umehara Ryuzaburo greatly during his war evacuation there. Since the spring of 1944, he notably concentrated on the subject of Mount Fuji. Umehara noted that Mount Fuji is a challenging subject for him, as its expressions under different weather and seasons are extremely changeable and diverse. However, as Tomiyama Hideo points out: “As if to overturn the engulfing power [of the mountain, Umehara] had struggled days and nights confronting it, and hurled himself into the tussle with it,” so as to compose the painting series of Mount Fuji.

Based on the actual geographical feature of the site, in this painting Umehara ambitiously adopted a grand composition that stages the surrounding landscape with Mount Fuji in the center. The artist masterly utilized the elements of line and color when depicting his subject. All these features belong to a distinguished Umehara style developed since the prewar time after his Mount Sakurajima and Peking series of works.

Umehara is said to have stayed in Uchiura Mito and sketched Mount Fuji several times during the years around 1948. In Seitan 110 nen kinen Umehara Ryuzaburo ten (Umehara Ryuzaburo: Commemorating the 110th anniversary of his birth), a work of the same composition and size to the present work is included. The work, titled Mount Fuji and dated around 1947 in the catalog of the exhibition, is clearly a full-size study of the present painting. Demonstrating the artist’s significant use of vibrant colors and bold brush works, Mount Fuji from Uchiura Bay features a mature and original Umehara style, and thus is an accomplished masterpiece of his Izu-composed Mount Fuji series traced back to the wartime.

Umehara Ryuzaburo (yoga painter; 1888−1986)
Kyoto-born yoga painter. Graduated from Kansai Bijutsuin (Kansai Art Academy). Studied yoga under Ito Yasuhiko and Asai Chu. Went to France and studied painting, first at Academie Julian and later after Auguste Renoir. Became founding member of independent artists’ associations Nika-kai and Shunyo-kai, and set up the yoga division of Kokuga Sosaku Kyokai (Association for the Creation of National Painting). Established an original style of Japanese yoga that is imbued with the rinpa and nanga traditions and distinguished for his use of vibrant colors. Appointed Tokyo University of the Arts professor. Nominated member of Teikoku Bijutsuin (the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts), Teikoku Geijutsuin (Imperial Art Academy), Japan Art Academy, honorary member of Association for the Creation of National Painting, and an Imperial Court Artist. Received the Order of Culture.