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.
A strong wind, a harbinger of imminent rain, sweeps the scene in the foreground and threatens to uproot the poles from which a system of wooden tablets supported by bamboo canes used to protect the fields sown from birds is hung.
In the background, the majestic snow-capped mountain, in its solitary and imperturbable stillness, seems to observe the difficulties of wayfarers hit by the gusts of wind.
The theme of the wind turns out to be one of the most fascinating for Hokusai who has extensively treated it in a similar way in the drawing Sunshu Ejiri , from the series of Thirty-six views of Fuji , and in relation to the human figure lashed by gusts, in the album Hokusai soga , ( 1820), in Mangwa xii, untitled plate (1834) and finally as an illustration in Kyoka Miyakodori 's album, Birds of the Capital (1802). A preparatory drawing of this panel is also known.