HOKUSAI KATSUSHIKA, One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji no. 73, 1836-1847

Stunning 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
According to the encyclopedia Wakan sansai zue, Orankai would have been the furthest point reached in Korean territory by General Katō Kiyomasa during the first expedition ordered by Hideyoshi against Korea in 1592. A Japanese prisoner from Matsumae, captured right at Orankai, reportedly said that from there, on clear days, it was still possible to glimpse Mount Fuji.
Hokusai draws inspiration from this source to create a highly imaginative image, in which the Japanese mountain appears from an extreme distance: it is indeed the farthest view in the entire series, made even more remote by the way the artist reduces the Fuji crater to a pointed peak. Despite the reference to Korea, the clothing of the figure in the foreground does not correspond to Korean costumes (like those represented in plate no. 68), but rather resembles Chinese-style garments, as does the strange stone next to which the character stands. This confirms that Hokusai here also does not intend to represent a precise geographical context, but rather to evoke an exotic and faraway place, almost an extreme edge of the continent, from which, however, the sacred mountain continues to symbolically dominate the horizon.