HOKUSAI KATSUHIKA, One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji n. 80, 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
In Torigoe, an area of Edo located north of the Asakusa gate, was the Office of the Calendar of the shōgunate, the official center for the study of astronomy in the late Tokugawa period. Here, a modern astronomical observatory was built, inspired by Western models, in a context of increasing influence from European scientific knowledge. The shōgun's astronomers were responsible for the annual definition of the traditional Japanese calendar, based on lunar cycles: it included long and short months and the insertion of an intercalary month to compensate for the discrepancy between the 28-day lunar cycle and the progression of the seasons.
The large spherical apparatus depicted by Hokusai in this context is not designed for direct astronomical observation, but should be interpreted as a tool for zodiacal study or as an illustrative device. It is likely that Hokusai was inspired by an illustration from the Tenkyū zenzu (Complete Illustrations of the Sky, 1796) by Shiba Kōkan, where an elaborate spherical model related to the representation of the sky and zodiac signs appears. However, the device depicted by Hokusai does not present the fundamental elements of a true mechanical planetarium, such as the sun and planets with their rotational and revolutionary motions, nor the typical tabletop structure of these instruments. Unlike Kōkan's model, which emphasizes the heliocentric system as a scientific demonstration, Hokusai's apparatus thus appears more as an emblem: a visual synthesis of his interest in Western science and his attraction to order, regularity, and the geometry of forms.