Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)
Sazai Hall at the Temple of the Five Hundred Arhats
五百らかん寺さざゐどう · Gohyaku Rakanji Sazaidō
Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1830–32
What it is
Visitors crowd the balcony of the Sazai Hall at the Temple of the Five Hundred Arhats in Edo, pointing and gazing across the plain to Fuji.
Why it matters
Hokusai turns the visitors themselves into the subject: the series watching people look at its mountain.
What to notice
The balcony’s floorboards run in sharp perspective toward the mountain, and almost every figure faces the same way.
Half the pleasure of a view is watching other people take it in.
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 · JP1335
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.