Japan Art and Hokusai: Mount Fuji
Lee Jay Walker
Modern Tokyo Times
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is one of the most distinguished artists to hail from Japan. Hence, countless Western artists adored many aspects of his printmaking in the nineteenth century. Naturally, many artists continue to admire his printmaking skills in the modern era.
Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is probably his most famous series of prints. This concerns the sheer power of this mountain in the mindset of tens of millions of Japanese people. Therefore, with the sublime printing skills of Hokusai – he elevated Mount Fuji through the prism of art.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art says (print above), “Juxtaposed here with the clear brilliant calm of “South Wind, Clear Sky” (the “Red Fuji”), the Storm Below Fuji reveals the expressive range and power of Hokusai’s vision. Forky across the inky base, a bolt of white lightning dramatizes the sudden change from a cloud filled summer sky to the murky violence that obscures all below Fuji’s magnificent cone.”
Hokusai produced many delightful prints of Mount Fuji and different subject matters that continue to appeal in modern times.
The British Museum says, “Hokusai is often categorised as an artist of the Floating World (ukiyo), a reference to the Edo period’s (1615–1868) distinctive world of the theatre, pleasure quarters and popular culture. But he was much more. He was a sympathetic observer of contemporary society, a synthesiser of East Asian and European painting techniques, and a teacher who shared his joy as an artist in dozens of manuals on drawing and painting.”
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