National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

This set of paintings won second prize at the sixth Bunten (Monbushō bijutsu tenrankai, the exhibitions held by the Ministry of Education) and earned Shiko distinction. Changing completely from his previous directions, which were portraits of historical figures and genre pictures, he opened up a new field in landscapes. Oumi Hakkei (Eight Scenes in Oumi) depicts eight famous sights by Lake Biwa imitating the Shosho Hakkei in China. It had become a common motif for painting in the Edo period. Shiko's Oumi Hakkei is not burdened by the old preconceptions about motifs, such as Hira no Bosetsu (Snow Falling on the Hira Mountains at Dusk) or Katata no Rakugan (Wild Geese Descending in Katara).

As for the scene of Hira, Shiko did not paint a snowscape as the name Bosetsu (Snow at Dusk) suggests, but instead he painted the clouds springing up in the blue summer sky with the sunlight reflected off the ultramarine water of Lake Biwa. Shiko in reality traveled around Lake Biwa from July to August in Taisho 1 (1912), and created his own Oumi Hakkei based on the impressions and sketches he had then.　
Shiko presents here the bright and dynamic style of painting, called the new nanga (a traditional Japanese painting style developed from Chinese "Southern School" style), as he leaves the traditional style of landscapes and employs the dot method associated with Impressionism. It is evident that he was influenced considerably by Western paintings that were being actively introduced, as Kuroda Houshin pointed out at that time "This style should be called post-Impressionism." There is also an attractive view that associates him with a Swiss impressionist painter, Segantini.