{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "id": "a-blue-that-crossed-borders",
  "title": "A blue that crossed borders.",
  "question": "What if the traveller is a material, rather than a picture?",
  "format": "Visual essay",
  "period": "Late 1820s / c. 1830–32",
  "places": [
    "China",
    "Japan"
  ],
  "themes": [
    "Material",
    "Prints",
    "Trade"
  ],
  "mediaKeys": [
    "catalogue:great-wave"
  ],
  "next": [
    "a-tree-crosses-the-page",
    "a-dish-translates-porcelain"
  ],
  "entities": [
    {
      "id": "prussian-blue-trade",
      "name": "Prussian blue available to Japanese publishers through China",
      "kind": "material",
      "date": "Late 1820s",
      "sourceId": "bm-blue"
    },
    {
      "id": "great-wave-design",
      "name": "Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa",
      "kind": "design",
      "date": "c. 1830–32",
      "sourceId": "bm-blue",
      "note": "The displayed Met impression is distinct from the British Museum record used for material history.",
      "mediaKey": "catalogue:great-wave",
      "catalogueSlug": "great-wave"
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "blue-availability",
      "text": "The British Museum connects the print’s Prussian blue to the pigment becoming cheaply available to Japanese publishers from China.",
      "kind": "circulation",
      "status": "attributed",
      "evidence": [
        {
          "sourceId": "bm-blue",
          "locator": "Curator's comments on Berlin / Prussian blue"
        }
      ],
      "limitation": "This is material context, not the documented supply chain for the particular Met impression displayed here.",
      "from": "prussian-blue-trade",
      "to": "great-wave-design"
    },
    {
      "id": "blue-publisher",
      "text": "The British Museum identifies Nishimuraya Yohachi as the publisher of its Great Wave impression.",
      "kind": "catalogue-fact",
      "status": "documented",
      "evidence": [
        {
          "sourceId": "bm-blue",
          "locator": "Producer name: Published by Nishimuraya Yohachi"
        }
      ],
      "limitation": "The publisher attribution does not document the pigment supplier or a purchase for the displayed Met sheet."
    }
  ],
  "treatment": {
    "kind": "pigment",
    "invitation": "Read colour as appearance, material and circumstance.",
    "stops": [
      {
        "id": "appearance",
        "label": "See",
        "title": "A blue in relation",
        "text": "Attend to blue beside paper, foam, boats and mountain. The image’s colours are preserved; no simulated pigment removal is used.",
        "claimIds": [
          "blue-availability"
        ],
        "entityId": "great-wave-design"
      },
      {
        "id": "material",
        "label": "Make",
        "title": "A pigment becomes available",
        "text": "The museum account connects a material opportunity with publishers. This brings production into the story without reducing it to one maker.",
        "claimIds": [
          "blue-availability"
        ],
        "entityId": "prussian-blue-trade"
      },
      {
        "id": "limit",
        "label": "Ask",
        "title": "Availability is not destiny",
        "text": "A pigment can enable choices without causing a particular composition. Trade history and pictorial decisions require different explanations.",
        "claimIds": [
          "blue-availability"
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "sections": [
    {
      "id": "image",
      "title": "Blue holds the wave and mountain in one field.",
      "voice": "Close reading",
      "paragraphs": [
        "Begin with the curling mass of water, then find Fuji in the interval beneath it. The same image makes a nearby wave immense and a mountain small. Blue participates in that reversal through contour, darker masses and the spaces left for foam and paper.",
        "Now look for differences within the blue areas. A darker contour and a pale field have different pictorial jobs. Their appearance on a screen cannot identify their pigments chemically; the material account comes from research, while these relationships are available to the eye."
      ],
      "claimIds": [
        "blue-availability"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "publisher",
      "title": "A publisher belongs in the colour story.",
      "voice": "Historical account",
      "paragraphs": [
        "The British Museum names Nishimuraya Yohachi as publisher and connects Prussian blue’s increasing availability through China with the print’s production context. That brings a practical question into the story: which materials could a publisher obtain and put into circulation through repeated impressions?",
        "Our reproduction is the Met’s sheet; the quoted material context comes from the British Museum’s record. The design connects them, but a finding or purchase history about one impression cannot automatically be transferred to the other. Pigment circulation is broader than the provenance of one sheet."
      ],
      "claimIds": [
        "blue-availability"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "cause",
      "title": "An available material still has to be composed.",
      "voice": "Open question",
      "paragraphs": [
        "Access to a strong blue gives makers possibilities. It does not explain the placement of the small mountain, the tension of the curved wave or the path of the boats. Those decisions ask to be read together with the material history.",
        "Try following only the edges where blue meets unprinted-looking paper, then return to the complete composition. The colour’s public life includes both a route through trade and a set of contrasts that a particular image puts to work. The two histories meet without becoming the same explanation."
      ],
      "claimIds": [
        "blue-availability"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "edition": "pilot",
  "version": "a-blue-that-crossed-borders.2",
  "route": "/essays/a-blue-that-crossed-borders",
  "primaryClaimId": "blue-availability",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "bm-blue",
      "title": "Under the Wave off Kanagawa, 2008,3008.1",
      "author": "British Museum",
      "url": "https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_2008-3008-1",
      "kind": "object-record",
      "locator": "Curator's comments on Berlin / Prussian blue",
      "supports": "The account connects Japanese publishers' access to inexpensive imported Prussian blue through China with the print's colour.",
      "limitation": "A pigment's availability is material context. It does not identify the supplier of the Met impression or explain every compositional choice.",
      "language": "en",
      "checked": "2026-10-17",
      "verification": {
        "checked": "2026-10-17",
        "method": "indexed-text",
        "note": "Relevant indexed primary-source text checked. Direct scripted access was blocked, empty or incomplete; this is not recorded as a successful full-page retrieval."
      }
    }
  ],
  "reception": {
    "reach": "The source describes availability to Japanese publishers through China. It does not trace the materials in the displayed Met impression.",
    "response": "Contour, mass and paper are compared visually; pigment identification is a separate research claim.",
    "consequence": "Material access can enable choices. It is not presented as the sole cause of the composition or its later fame."
  },
  "review": {
    "checked": "2026-10-17",
    "research": "source-checked",
    "independent": "pending",
    "assistance": "Source verification and prose revised with AI assistance. Independent specialist review remains pending.",
    "editorial": {
      "checked": "2026-10-17",
      "method": "AI-assisted source and prose review",
      "focus": "A material route meets a publisher’s choices and a particular composition.",
      "changes": [
        "Checked the British Museum’s publisher and Prussian-blue context.",
        "Removed discussion of an unbuilt pigment-removal control.",
        "Separated visible colour relationships from chemical identification and from the Met sheet’s supply history."
      ]
    }
  },
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "a-blue-that-crossed-borders.1",
      "date": "2026-10-17",
      "note": "First source-checked review edition. Historical claims and original readings are distinguished; image permissions are recorded separately."
    },
    {
      "version": "a-blue-that-crossed-borders.2",
      "date": "2026-10-17",
      "note": "Checked the British Museum’s publisher and Prussian-blue context. Removed discussion of an unbuilt pigment-removal control. Separated visible colour relationships from chemical identification and from the Met sheet’s supply history."
    }
  ],
  "summary": "The British Museum connects the print’s Prussian blue to the pigment becoming cheaply available to Japanese publishers from China.",
  "canonical": "https://artologium.com/essays/a-blue-that-crossed-borders",
  "releaseStatus": "Local review edition; editorially revised with AI assistance; independent specialist review pending",
  "socialPreview": "Canonical investigation card. Selected passage is preserved in the URL and export, not pictured in the card.",
  "media": [
    {
      "key": "catalogue:great-wave",
      "title": "Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)",
      "creator": "Katsushika Hokusai",
      "date": "ca. 1830–32",
      "institution": "The Metropolitan Museum of Art",
      "accession": "JP1847",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/45434",
      "sourceImage": "/images/collection/great-wave.webp",
      "license": "CC0",
      "licenseUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/",
      "rightsSource": "https://www.metmuseum.org/hubs/open-access",
      "creditLine": "H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929",
      "alt": "A wave curls over three long boats; Mount Fuji sits small beneath its arc.",
      "rightsStatus": "open",
      "changes": "Existing verified catalogue image; full composition retained.",
      "src": "/images/collection/great-wave.webp",
      "width": 1600,
      "height": 1076,
      "sha256": "35409adecf1b7734975a103c618181b82ea34067a7498cb74a1be06bcf5c623e",
      "sourceSha256": "35409adecf1b7734975a103c618181b82ea34067a7498cb74a1be06bcf5c623e",
      "retrieved": "2026-10-16",
      "displayVariants": [],
      "displayCrop": null
    }
  ]
}