36 Views of Mount Fuji (Hokusai)

nihongo|36 Views of Mount Fuji|富嶽三十六景|Fugaku Sanjūrokkei is an ukiyo-e series of 46 large, color woodblock prints by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). The series depicts Mount Fuji in differing seasons and weather conditions from a variety of different places and distances. It actually consists of 46 prints created between 1826 and 1833. The first 36 were included in the original publication and, due to their popularity, 10 more were added after the original publication.Nagata]

History

While Hokusai's "36 Views of Mount Fuji" is the most famous Ukiyo-e series to focus on Mount Fuji, there are several other series with the same subject, including "36 Views of Mount Fuji", by Hiroshige, and "100 View of Mount Fuji", also by Hokusai. Mount Fuji is a popular subject for Japanese art due to its cultural and religious significance. This belief can be traced to the "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter", where a goddess deposits the elixir of life on the peak. As Henry Smith explains, "Thus from an early time, Mt. Fuji was seen as the source of the secret of immortality, a tradition that was at the heart of Hokusai's own obsession with the mountain."Smith]

The most famous single image from the series is widely known in English as nihongo|"The Great Wave off Kanagawa"|神奈川沖浪裏|"Kanagawa-oki nami-ura", although a more literal translation might be, "Off Kanagawa, the back (or underside) of a wave." It depicts three boats being threatened by a large wave while Mount Fuji rises in the background. While generally assumed to be a tsunami, the wave was probably intended to simply be a large ocean wave.

Each of the images was made through a process whereby an image drawn on paper was used to guide the cutting of a wood block. This block was then covered with ink and applied to paper to create the image. The complexity of Hokusai's images includes the wide range of colors he used, which required the use of a series of blocks for each of the colors used in the images.

Prints

Original 36

Additional 10

Notes

References

* Nagata, Seiji (1999). "Hokusai: Genius of the Japanese Ukiyo-e." Kodansha, Tokyo.
* Smith, Henry D. II (1988). "Hokusai: One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji." George Braziller, Inc., Publishers, New York. ISBN 0807611956.

External links

* [http://www.man-pai.com/Grandes_series/Hokusai_Fuji36/hokusai_36_vistas_monte_fuji_e.htm Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji]
* [http://www.artelino.com/articles/hokusai.asp A short biography of Hokusai including a section on the 36 Views of Mt. Fuji series.]
* [http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/ukiyoe/hokusai.html Jim Breen's ukiyo-e page on Hokusai and the 36 Views]
* [http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/adachi-hanga/series/fugaku36.html 葛飾北斎の富士山・富嶽三十六景] ja icon