Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)
Hodogaya on the Tōkaidō
東海道保土ケ谷 · Tōkaidō Hodogaya
Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1830–32
What it is
Travellers on foot, on horseback and in a palanquin pass along the Tōkaidō at Hodogaya beneath a row of tall pines, and Fuji shows between the trunks.
Why it matters
Hokusai uses the roadside trees as a screen the mountain is seen through, one of the many frames the series finds.
What to notice
The trunks cut the view into narrow panels; the mountain sits in one of them like a picture hung between columns.
The traveller sees the great thing only in pieces, between the ordinary ones.
The record
- Artist
- Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760–1849)
- Series
- Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)
- Date
- c. 1830–32
- Publisher
- Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudō)
- Medium
- woodblock print; ink and color on paper
- Source
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art · JP1427
Impression note. The series sold well and was printed in large numbers. The first sheets lean on the newly imported Prussian blue, outlines included; later printings add colours and soften the key block. This is the largest clean open impression of the design the Met holds. Impression variance is real — printings differ in wiping and fading — and choosing the finest openly held impression is the curatorial act.
Public domain; faithfully reproduced.
Bring it home
Printed to order on EMA matte art paper, 200gsm.
From the same series
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)Under the Wave off Kanagawa (The Great Wave)Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1830–32
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)Fine Wind, Clear Morning (Red Fuji)Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1830–32
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)Thunderstorm Beneath the SummitKatsushika Hokusai · c. 1830–32
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)Kajikazawa in Kai ProvinceKatsushika Hokusai · c. 1830–32The road at your moment — Painted Earth’s ukiyo-e style pack.