HOKUSAI KATSUHIKA, One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji n. 23, 1834

Fuji on the first day of the new year, Gantan no fuji

Series: One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji , Fugaku Hyakkei
Technique: Sumizuri-e , woodblock prints in two or three shades of gray ( sumi ink)
Format: Hanshibon koban , single sheet (approximately 183x123 mm)
Signatures: Zen Hokusai Iitsu Aratame Gakyorojin Manji
Artist's seal: Fuji no Yama
Date: Woodcuts engraved between 1834 and 1847; examples printed between 1834 and about 1870
Engravers: Egawa Tomekichi and Egawa Sentarō
Publisher: Eirakuya Tōshirō (Tōshodō), Nagoya

A splendid work with good contrasts, attributable to the Eirakuya Tōshirō print run (mid-19th century) from the original woodcuts from the Egawa workshop. Printed on Japanese paper, in excellent condition, with original margins intact 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
GC Calza, Hokusai: the old man crazy about painting , Milan 1999-2000, London 2003
GC Calza, Hokusai: 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

Description
Depicted here is a moment from the Shinnen festival, a celebration for the first day of the new year in Edo.
On this day, houses were symbolically swept clean of the previous year's debris, and broad beans or beans were thrown into the corners with the invocation "Oni wa soto fuku wa uchi" ("Demons out, good fortune in"). The streets were festively crowded with manzai (traveling jesters), kadozuke (roving musicians) , kugutsu (puppeteers), and saizo (drum players). These are the characters that populate the design, among which, right in the center, stands an artist in elegant togas, followed by his assistant, dressed in a matching pattern featuring a "mon" with the ideogram "san," the number 3, inside a circle. The pair toured the samurai residences, performing songs and dances celebrating the families' eternal prosperity.
Just behind the assistant is a street minstrel, dressed in formal kamishimo attire; the smaller figure in front of him is probably his assistant.
To the left, mostly hidden by the pine branches, are the hat and clogs of a type of female performer known as a tori-oi , who would sing auspicious songs to the accompaniment of the shamisen . Just to the right of the straw hat is the furry head and tiny ear of a monkey, whose trainer holds the long pole with a cross and a circle on which his pet will perform. The geometry of the monkey's small stage matches the geometry of the mountain.
On the left, a kite with the ideogram “fu” , meaning both fuku , prosperity, and fugaku , divine mountain.
A plate with a similar title and the drawing of the expulsion of demons from the house is in the illustrated album Hokusai soga (1820) and in Hokusai Manga vol. IV (1816).