HOKUSAI KATSUHIKA, One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji n. 57, 1835

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
Like in a dream, on a cloud decorated with geometric patterns, a poet contemplates Mount Fuji from the beach of Tago. The figure, suspended in an atmosphere of contemplation and detachment, represents the poet Yamabe no Akahito (active between 724 and 737), author of famous verses dedicated to Fuji: «Tago no ura ni / uchidete mireba / mashiro no zu / Fuji no takane ni / yuki wa furitsutsu» («Passing on the beach of Tago, I saw the snow fall white, up there on the peak of Fuji»).
In the print, the poet sits thoughtfully on the shore, isolated from the surrounding space by an ornamental motif that evokes a cloud, a device that emphasizes his temporal distance and dreamlike dimension. The landscape he observes is the same depicted in the plate Tōkaidō Eijiri Tago no ura ryakuzu (Sketch of the Tago Coast near Eijiri on the Tōkaidō), belonging to the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, of which a preparatory drawing is also known.
On the beach below, daily activities related to salt production can be glimpsed, for which Tagonoura was also known in classical poetry. The large furnace basins that appear there recall motifs already present in other views of the series, thus blending the real landscape, the poetic myth, and the cultural memory of the sacred mountain.