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HOKUSAI KATSUSHIKA, FUJI IN A GRASS GARLAND n. 93

HOKUSAI KATSUSHIKA, FUJI IN A GRASS GARLAND n. 93

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Chinowa 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.

The elegant lines of the slopes of Fuji inscribed in a garland.

In traditional Japan, summer was considered a season of disease and fire, and a variety of ways were put in place to drive away evil spirits.

The one represented in the view consisted in hanging a garland of chigaya , a herb of the rice family for medicinal use, on the torii (portals) of the Shinto temples dedicated to the local Kami .

On the left a spring flows from a tree , suisei-ki , water donated by the tree.

Smith believes that the scene is located in the precinct of the temple dedicated to Inari (divinity of rice) in Takada, Edo.

In the Edo meisho zue , illustrated guide to Edo, (1834-6) it is reported that here, in the fourth month of Genroku 15 (1702), as a divine sign a miraculous water for eye diseases flowed from an enoki tree , l Chinese nettle tree (the figure on the left brings the water from the tree right up to his eyes).

Another drawing of the suisei-ki tree is in Mangwa xiv.