This is the second of my occasional series on landslides in art. Part One can be found here.

In 1941 the Japanese-American landscape painter Chiura Obata produced the following painting, simply named “Landslide”:

For me this is a powerful image for two reasons. First, it manages to communicate the horror of landslides, and in particular the chaotic engulfing of everything in its path. Second, of course 1941 was a very difficult time to be a Japanese-American; indeed between 1942 and 1943 Obata was detained by the authorities, during which time he was attacked and hospitalised for a fortnight.