is a series of landscape prints by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (1760–1849). The series depicts Mount Fuji from different locations and in various seasons and weather conditions. The immediate success of the publication led to another ten prints being added to the series.
The series was produced from to 1832, when Hokusai was in his seventies and at the height of his career, and published by Nishimura Yohachi.Calza, p. 30Calza, p. 470 Among the prints are three of Hokusai's most famous: The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Fine Wind, Clear Morning, and Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit. The lesser-known Kajikazawa in Kai Province is also considered one of the series' best works.Calza, p. 472 The Thirty-six Views has been described as the artist's "indisputable colour-print masterpiece".
History Mount Fuji is a popular subject for Japanese art due to its cultural and religious significance. This belief can be traced to The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, where a goddess deposits the elixir of life on the peak. As the historian 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
Each image was made through a process whereby Hokusai's drawing on paper was glued to a woodblock to guide the carving. The original design is therefore lost in the process. The block was then covered with ink and applied to paper to create the image (see Woodblock printing in Japan for further details). The complexity of Hokusai's images includes the wide range of colors he used, which required the use of a separate block for each color appearing in the image.
The earliest prints in the series were made with largely blue tones (aizuri-e), including the key blocks which provide an image's outlines. Prussian blue pigment had not long before been introduced to Japan from Europe and Hokusai used it extensively, ensuring its popularity. Once the publisher, Nishimura, was sure of the series' success, prints were made with multiple colours (nishiki-e). Nishimura had planned to expand the series to more than a hundred prints, but publication stopped at forty-six.Calza, p. 230
The most famous single image from the series is widely known in English as The Great Wave off Kanagawa. It is Hokusai's most celebrated work and is often considered the most recognizable work of Japanese art in the world. Another iconic work from Thirty-six Views is Fine Wind, Clear Morning, also known as Red Fuji, which has been described as "one of the simplest and at the same time one of the most outstanding of all Japanese prints".Calza, p. 471
Influence While Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is the most famous ukiyo-e series to focus on Mount Fuji, there are several other works with the same subject, including Hiroshige's later series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji and Hokusai's subsequent book One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji (published 1834–1835).
In his 1896 book on Hokusai, French art critic Edmond de Goncourt wrote that despite its "rather crude colors", it was, "the album which inspires the landscapes of the impressionists of the present moment." The French artist Henri Rivière (1864–1951) published the set of color lithographs "Thirty-six views of the Tour Eiffel" in 1902, inspired by the seminal print set of Hokusai, one of the many influences of Japanese art on late 19th century and early 20th century French art (Japonism, known as "Japonisme" in French)
Prints Original thirty-six No. Image English title Japanese title1 The Great Wave off Kanagawa Kanagawa oki nami-ura2 Fine Wind, Clear Morning, also known as South Wind, Clear Sky or Red Fuji Gaifū kaisei3 Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit Sanka hakuu4 Under at Fukagawa Fukagawa Mannen-bashi shita5 Sundai, Edo Tōto Sundai6 The at Aoyama Aoyama Enza-no-matsu7 in Musashi Province Bushū Senju8 Tama River in Musashi Province Bushū Tama-gawa9 Pass in Kai Province Kōshū Inume-tōge10 Field in Owari Province Bishū Fujimigahara11 in Edo Tōto Asakusa Hongan-ji12 in Edo Buyō Tsukuda-jima13 Shichirigahama in Sagami Province Soshū Shichirigahama 14 Umezawa in Sagami Province (near present-day Ninomiya, Kanagawa) Soshū Umezawa-no-hidari15 Kajikazawa in Kai Province Kōshū Kajikazawa16 Mishima Pass in Kai Province (near present-day ) Kōshū Mishima-goe17 A View of Mount Fuji Across Lake Suwa (Lake Suwa in Shinano Province) Shinshū Suwa-ko18 Ejiri in Suruga Province Sunshū Ejiri19 In the Mountains of Tōtōmi Province Tōtōmi san-chū20 Ushibori in Hitachi Province (present-day Itako, Ibaraki) Jōshū Ushibori21 A Sketch of the Mitsui Shop in Suruga in Edo (present-day Muromachi, Tokyo) Kōto Suruga-cho Mitsui-mise ryakuzu22 Sunset Across Ryōgoku Bridge from Ommayagashi (present-day Kuramae, Taitō, Tokyo) Ommayagashi yori Ryōgoku-bashi yūhi-mi23 at Gohyakurakan-ji Sazaidō24 Morning After a Snowfall at Koishikawa Koishikawa yuki no ashita25 Shimomeguro Shimomeguro26 Watermill at Onden no suisha27 Enoshima in Sagami Province Soshū Enoshima28 Sketch of , Ejiri Along the Tōkaidō Tōkaidō Ejiri Tago-no-ura ryakuzu29 Yoshida Along the Tōkaidō Tōkaidō Yoshida30 Kazusa Province Sea Route Kazusa no kairo31 Nihonbashi in Edo Edo Nihonbashi32 Sekiya Village on the Sumida River (near present-day Keisei Sekiya Station) Sumida-gawa Sekiya-no-sato33 Noboto Bay (present-day Chūō-ku, Chiba) Noboto-ura34 Hakone Lake in Sagami Province Sōshū Hakone-kosui35 Reflection from in Kai Province (in Lake Kawaguchi) Kōshū Misaka suimen36 Hodogaya Along the Tōkaidō Tōkaidō Hodogaya
Additional 10 No. Image English title Japanese title1 (37) Tate River from the Timberyard at Honjo (in present-day Sumida, Tokyo) Honjo Tatekawa2 (38) A View of Mount Fuji from the Pleasure District at Senju Hana-machi yori chōbō no Fuji3 (39) , Shinagawa Along the Tōkaidō Tōkaidō Shinagawa Goten'yama no Fuji4 (40) Nakahara in Sagami Province (in present-day Hiratsuka, Kanagawa) Sōshū Nakahara5 (41) Dawn at Isawa in Kai Province Kōshū Isawa no Akatsuki6 (42) The Back of Fuji from the Minobu River (possibly actually the Fuji River near present-day Minobu, Yamanashi) Minobu-gawa ura Fuji7 (43) Ōno Field in Suruga Province Sunshū Ōno-shinden8 (44) Tea Plantation at Katakura in Suruga Province (near present-day Nakano, Fuji, Shizuoka) Sunshū Katakura-chaen no Fuji9 (45) Kanaya Along the Tōkaidō Tōkaidō Kanaya no Fuji10 (46) Climbing on Fuji Shojin tozan
Exhibitions A collection of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji prints contained in the wellness spa of the Costa Concordia was lost when the ship sank on January 13, 2012.
In the spring of 2012, all forty-six prints (the original thirty-six plus the ten additions) were featured in the exhibition Hokusai: 36 Views of Mount Fuji at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, D.C..
The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji prints were displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as part of a Hokusai exhibit from 5 April to 9 August, 2015.
The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji prints were displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia as part of a Hokusai exhibit from 21 July through 22 October 2017. The exhibit featured two copies of The Great Wave off Kanagawa, one from the NGV and one from Japan Ukiyo-e Museum.
There are fewer than 10 complete sets of the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, with prominent pieces held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MFA Boston, the British Museum, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Markets Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is often sold in prominent auction houses focused on Japanese art, such as that of Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, etc.
In 2002, a complete set sold at Sotheby's went for $1.47 million, through an anonymous buyer.
In 2013, another complete set was assembled by Dr. Jitendra V. Singh, a professor from Wharton School, who was inspired by Mt. Fuji from seeing the mountain on flights to Japan as well as his previous Hindu pilgrimages to Mount Everest and Mount Kailash. He purchased Fuji Seen From Kanaya on the Tokaido first, with the iconic pieces acquired from 2014 to 2016, the final print was acquired in January 2023.
On 19 March 2024, the Singh collection went onto auction at Christie's, which then sold for $3.559 million from an estimated bid of $3–5 million. The proceeds has gone into Singh's trust.
See also One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji Three Views of Japan Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Hiroshige
Notes
References Balcou, Amelie (2019). "Hokusai: Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji". Prestel. .
Marks, Andreas (2021). "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji". New York: Taschen. . Nagata, Seiji (1999). Hokusai: Genius of the Japanese Ukiyo-e. Tokyo: Kodansha. Price, Jonathan Reeve (2020). "Viewing Hokusai Viewing Mount Fuji". Albuquerque, New Mexico: Communication Circle. . Smith, Henry D. II (1988). Hokusai: One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji. New York: George Braziller, Inc., Publishers. . Thompson, Sarah (2019). "Hokusai's Landscapes: The Complete Series". Boston: MFA Publications. . Zelazny, Roger (1985). "24 Views of Mount Fuji". In Cthulu 2000: Stories (1995). Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. .
External links
Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji A short biography of Hokusai including a section on the 36 Views of Mt. Fuji series. A brief description and woodblock reprint collection of Hokusai's 36 Views of Mt. Fuji series.