Japan and its history through the cigarette case scenes
Architecture Culture Art Special Cases
Thirty-six Views Of Mount Fuji
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji [富嶽三十六景] 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 series was produced from 1830 to 1832, when Hokusai was in his seventies and at the height of his career, and published by Nishimura Yohachi.

Among the prints are three of Hokusai's most famous: Under the Wave off Kanagawa (or The Great Wave); South Wind, Clear Sky; and Rainstorm Beneath the Summit. The series has been described as the artist's "indisputable colour-print masterpiece".

"Fuji View Field in Owari Province"

"Fuji View Field in Owari Province" (尾州不二見原) is the 9th print of the series. The scene takes place at a present-day Fujimi-cho, Naka Ward, Nagoya City, Aichi Prefecture. A symmetrical composition shows the cooper carving the interior of a large barrel (likely a soy sauce "Oke" barrel, 醤油樽) with the spear-plane (槍鉋, Yari ganna). On the left side of the barrel is a broom and a toolbox, and on the right is a mallet, to hold the barrel in place. The Mt. Fuji, slightly off-center, seen through the barrel.


Top: "Fuji View Field in Owari Province" woodblock print from the series. Bottom: a cigarette case from the Nogawa workshop (from Fred Zweig's collection) with the same scene.

The location of Mt. Fuji and the cooper suggests a religious overtone to the man's honest labor and existence. Mt. Fuji appears very tiny, hinting that Hokusai provided the spectators the opportunity to find it by themselves.

References