HOKUSAI KATSUHIKA, One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji n. 23, 1834

Splendid proof with good contrasts, attributable to the print run of Eirakuya Tōshirō (mid-19th century) from the original woods of the Egawa workshop. Printed on Japanese paper, in excellent condition, with original untrimmed margins beyond the marginal line.

Annotated Bibliography
H.D. Smith II, Hokusai: One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji, New York: George Braziller, 1988
M. Forrer, Hokusai, London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1991
M. Forrer, Hokusai, New York: Rizzoli, 1988
M. Forrer, Hokusai: Prints and Drawings, Munich: Prestel, 1991
G.C. Calza, Hokusai: The Old Madman of Painting, Milan 1999-2000, London 2003
G.C. Calza, Hokusai: The One Hundred Views of Fuji, Milan: Editoriale Nuova, 1982
J. Hillier, The Art of Hokusai in Book Illustration, London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1980
J. Hillier, L. Smith, Japanese Prints: 300 Years of Albums and Books, London: British Museum Publications, 1980
R.S. Keyes, Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan, New York: George Braziller, 2006
T. Clark (ed.), Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave, London: British Museum Press, 2017
M. Forrer, W.R. van Gulik, Hokusai and His School: Paintings, Drawings and Illustrated Books, Leiden: Society for Japanese Arts and Crafts, 1991
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/78803

Commentary
This represents a moment from the Shinnen festival, a celebration for the first day of the new year in Edo.
On this day, symbolically, houses were swept of the remnants of the past year, and beans were thrown into the corners with the invocation “Oni wa soto fuku wa uchi” (“Demons out, fortune in”). The streets were festively crowded with manzai (traveling jesters), kadozuke (wandering musicians), kugutsu (puppeteers), and saizo (drummers). These are the characters that populate the drawing, among which is noted, right in the center, an artist in elegant robes, followed by his assistant, dressed in a matching pattern featuring a “mon” with the ideogram “san”, the number 3, enclosed in a circle. The pair makes the rounds of the samurai residences, performing celebratory songs and dances for the eternal prosperity of the families.
Just behind the assistant is a street minstrel, dressed in formal kamishimo; the smaller figure in front of him is probably his assistant.
To the left, mostly hidden by the branches of the pine, one can see the hat and clogs of a type of female artist known as tori-oi, who, accompanied by the shamisen, would sing auspicious songs. Just to the right of the straw hat, one can glimpse the furry head and a tiny ear of a monkey, whose trainer holds the long pole with a cross and a circle on which his little animal will perform. The geometry of the monkey's small stage harmonizes with the geometry of the mountain.
To the left, a kite with the ideogram “fu”, signifying both fuku, prosperity, and fugaku, divine mountain.
A plate with a similar title and the drawing of the expulsion of demons from the house is in the illustrated album Hokusai soga (1820) and in Hokusai Manga vol. IV (1816).