HOKUSAI KATSUHIKA, One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji n. 63, 1836-1847

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
The plate depicts an extraordinary view of a suspended bridge above the clouds, inspired by a legendary episode related to the sacred area of Nikkō, north of Edo, in the ancient province of Shimotsuke, famous for its Buddhist and Shinto temples and for the mausoleums of the early Tokugawa shōgun. The Nikkōsan-shi (Chronicles of Nikkō, 1825) indeed describe a prodigious “spreading pine” on Mount Nyohō (another name for Mount Nantai) whose exceptional size allowed it to extend for over half a mile, crossing entire valleys. According to tradition, this immense tree served as a natural bridge between two sides of the mountain: the ascetic priests who practiced on Nantai traversed it as a religious exercise, and pilgrims heading to the Tōshōgu shrine also used it as a shortcut.
Hokusai was certainly familiar with the Chronicles of Nikkō, having created two illustrations for the printed edition of 1837; it is plausible that, based on this material, he reinterpreted the tree in the grandly arched form that appears in the print, placing a small shrine at the summit. Along the snow-covered trunk, various ascetics move, one of whom plays the conch shell horn typical of yamabushi monks, while below the natural arch, the view opens up to Mount Fuji, placed unusually low in the composition, giving a sense of majesty to the landscape. Mount Nantai, about one hundred miles from Fuji, constitutes one of the farthest observation points represented in the One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji.