HOKUSAI KATSUHIKA, One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji n. 93, 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 panel represents a summer scene, a period considered particularly insidious due to diseases and heat, and therefore rich in rituals aimed at driving away evil spirits. At the center of the composition, the elegant slopes of Mount Fuji are inscribed in a sort of garland, evoking a sense of harmony between nature and ritual. The garland is made of chigaya, a medicinal grass from the rice family, rolled into a circle and hung on a torii, the shrine's gate, as protection against summer miasmas. The evening before the first day of the sixth month, a purification ceremony was held, during which the faithful passed through the circle to rid themselves of the malevolent effects of summer. In the scene, a Shinto priest blesses the chinowa with a gohei, a paper wand, emphasizing the sacred nature of the rite.
To the left of the composition, there is a spring gushing from a tree, known as suisei-ki, sacred water considered miraculous, especially for eye diseases. According to the Edo meisho zue (1834), in the fourth month of Genroku 15 (1702), a divine sign produced a sacred spring from the enoki tree (Chinese hackberry) in the enclosure of the Takada Inari shrine in Edo; the visually impaired could wash with this water and obtain healing. In the panel, the man on the left seems to be applying the water to his eyes, recalling this tradition.
Hokusai revisits the same theme in Hokusai Manga vol. XIV. The original tree of Takada Inari survived until World War II, then was destroyed during the bombings, while the shrine was relocated near Waseda University.
Overall, the panel blends the landscape observation of Fuji with religious and ritual practices, combining nature, poetry, and devotion into a single, refined symbolic picture.