Fushiana 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.
This plate represents the vision of the inverted Fuji, projected through a hole, onto the translucent paper of a shoji , dividing panel.
Suzuki reports that in the writings of the great writer Baikin (1767-1848) a similar phenomenon was described, but its physical principle was not recognized. Hokusai illustrated multiple novels of the writer, so he may have come to know the phenomenon as he may have observed it in person.
The characters on the left, seeing an unusual shot of the mountain, are amazed.