Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)
Honganji at Asakusa in Edo
東都浅草本願寺 · Tōto Asakusa Honganji
Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1830–32
What it is
The huge roof of the Honganji temple at Asakusa fills the sheet, with workmen on its ridge, a kite in the air and a tall scaffold tower behind; Fuji is small in the distance.
Why it matters
Hokusai liked to set the mountain against the largest things people built, and this temple roof dwarfs it.
What to notice
The kite string, the tower and the roof’s edge all point toward the far mountain, a cluster of lines leading the eye out of the city.
From inside the city, the mountain is a small promise over the rooftops.
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 · JP2996
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.