Series : One Hundred Views of Fuji, Fugaku Hyakkei
Technique: nishikie, woodcuts in two shades of gray.
Format: hanshinbon koban diptych (about 183x253 mm)
Signatures : Zen Hokusai Iitsu aratame Gakyorojin Manji
Artist's seal : Fuji no Yama
Dates : engraved between 1834 – 1836, impressed between 1850 and 1870
Engravers: Egawa Tomekichi and Tsentaro
Publisher: Katano Toshiro.
Splendid proof with good contrasts, in the third edition from the original woodcuts. Printed on Japan paper, in excellent condition, with clean edges all around beyond the marginal line.
Bibliography:
Calza GC Hokusai, the old fool for painting , Milan 1999-2000, London, 2003.
Calza GC Hokusai, the hundred views of Fuji , Milan, 1982.
Dickins FV Fugaku hiyaku-kei: one hundred view of Fuji by Hokusai , London, 1880.
Forrer M. Hokusai, prints and drawings , London, 1991.
Hillier J. The art of Hokusai in book illustration , London, 1980.
Lane R. Hokusai, life and works , Milan, 1991.
Salamon Villa T., The hundred views of Fuji, Turin, 1975.
Smith II H. Hokusai: one hundred view of Fuji by Hokusai, London, 1988.
En no Shokaku known as Ubasoku, on the edge of the crater of the sacred mountain in the meditative position of the "lotus" with the hands in the esoteric Buddhist sign indicating the sword of the god Fudo, to exorcise the spirits that emerge materialized in the vapors given off from the bowels of the volcano .
En no Shokaku (633-703), was a hermit Buddhist prophet, forerunner of the Shugendo sect of yamabushi , mountain ascetic monks.
He was the first ascent of Fuji. The first temple on the mountain was later built by Emperor Heijo (774-824) in his first regnal year, 806.
Legend has it that at night he flew over the waters accompanied by two oni , Zenki and Goki, to then ascend to Fuji and meditate. The term soso of the title literally means founder of a temple.
Subject already drawn in Mangwa X, En no Ozunu senki goki (1819) and in Hokusai Gashiki (1819).