Mi kiri no fuji
Series : One Hundred Views of Fuji, Fugaku Hyakkei.
Technique: nishikie, woodcuts in two shades of gray and one of pink.
Format: hanshinbon koban (about 183x123 mm).
Signatures : Zen Hokusai Iitsu aratame Gakyorojin Manji.
Artist's seal : Fuji no Yama.
Dates : 1834-1836.
Engravers: Egawa Tomekichi and Tsentaro.
Publishers: Nishimura Yuzo, Eirakuya Toshiro.
Beautiful proof with good contrasts, in a fourth edition published by Tohikedo in 1852 with the characteristic pink tone. 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.
Fuji is viewed through the grid of a shoji , a sliding wall.
A painter puts the finishing touches on a boat charterer's lantern/sign on the Sumida River.
The lantern bears both the name of the house, Fuji-ya, and the slogan , senkyaku banrai , one thousand customers, ten thousand visits.
The sign lists the various types of vessel available: from pleasure boats, yanebune , to cargo boats, nirari ; from fast boats, chokibune , to fishing boats, tsuribune .
Mikiri, vision as through a grid.