is a series of landscape prints by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (1760–1849). The series depicts Mount Fuji from different locations and in various seasons and weather conditions. The immediate success of the publication led to another ten prints being added to the series.
The series was produced from to 1832, when Hokusai was in his seventies and at the height of his career, and published by Nishimura Yohachi.[1] [2] Among the prints are three of Hokusai's most famous: The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Fine Wind, Clear Morning, and Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit.[1] The lesser-known Kajikazawa in Kai Province is also considered one of the series' best works.[3] The Thirty-six Views has been described as the artist's "indisputable colour-print masterpiece".[2]
Mount Fuji is a popular subject for Japanese art due to its cultural and religious significance. This belief can be traced to The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, where a goddess deposits the elixir of life on the peak. As the historian Henry Smith[4] explains, "Thus from an early time, Mt. Fuji was seen as the source of the secret of immortality, a tradition that was at the heart of Hokusai's own obsession with the mountain."[5]
Each image was made through a process whereby Hokusai's drawing on paper was glued to a woodblock to guide the carving. The original design is therefore lost in the process. The block was then covered with ink and applied to paper to create the image (see Woodblock printing in Japan for further details). The complexity of Hokusai's images includes the wide range of colors he used, which required the use of a separate block for each color appearing in the image.
The earliest prints in the series were made with largely blue tones (aizuri-e), including the key blocks which provide an image's outlines.[2] Prussian blue pigment had not long been introduced to Japan from Europe and Hokusai used it extensively, ensuring its popularity. Once the publisher, Nishimura, was sure of the series' success, prints were made with multiple colours (nishiki-e). Nishimura had planned to expand the series to more than a hundred prints, but publication stopped at forty-six.[6]
The most famous single image from the series is widely known in English as The Great Wave off Kanagawa. It is Hokusai's most celebrated work and is often considered the most recognizable work of Japanese art in the world. Another iconic work from Thirty-six Views is Fine Wind, Clear Morning, also known as Red Fuji, which has been described as "one of the simplest and at the same time one of the most outstanding of all Japanese prints".[7]
While Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is the most famous ukiyo-e series to focus on Mount Fuji, there are several other works with the same subject, including Hiroshige's later series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji and Hokusai's subsequent book One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji (published 1834–1835).
In his 1896 book on Hokusai, French art critic Edmond de Goncourt wrote that despite its "rather crude colors", it was, "the album which inspires the landscapes of the impressionists of the present moment."[2] The French artist Henri Rivière (1864–1951) published the set of color lithographs "Thirty-six views of the Tour Eiffel" in 1902, inspired by the seminal print set of Hokusai, one of the many influences of Japanese art on late 19th century and early 20th century French art (Japonism, known as "Japonisme" in French)
| No. | Image | English title | Japanese title | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Great Wave off Kanagawa | Kanagawa oki nami-ura | ||
| 2 | Fine Wind, Clear Morning, also known as South Wind, Clear Sky or Red Fuji | Gaifū kaisei | ||
| 3 | Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit | Sanka hakuu | ||
| 4 | Under Mannen Bridge at Fukagawa | Fukagawa Mannen-bashi shita | ||
| 5 | Sundai, Edo | Tōto Sundai | ||
| 6 | The Cushion Pine at Aoyama | Aoyama Enza-no-matsu | ||
| 7 | Senju in Musashi Province | Bushū Senju | ||
| 8 | Inume Pass in Kai Province | Kōshū Inume-tōge | ||
| 9 | Fujimi Field in Owari Province | Bishū Fujimigahara | ||
| 10 | Ejiri in Suruga Province | Sunshū Ejiri | ||
| 11 | A sketch of the Mitsui shop in Suruga in Edo (present-day Muromachi, Tokyo) | Kōto Suruga-cho Mitsui-mise ryakuzu | ||
| 12 | Sunset across the Ryōgoku bridge from the bank of the Sumida River at Onmayagashi | Ommayagashi yori ryōgoku-bashi yūhi mi | ||
| 13 | Sazai hall – Temple of Five Hundred Rakan | Gohyaku-rakanji Sazaidō | ||
| 14 | Tea house at Koishikawa. The morning after a snowfall | Koishikawa yuki no ashita | ||
| 15 | Shimomeguro | Shimomeguro | ||
| 16 | Watermill at Onden | Onden no suisha | ||
| 17 | Enoshima in Sagami Province | Soshū Enoshima | ||
| 18 | Shore of Tago Bay, Ejiri at Tōkaidō | Tōkaidō Ejiri tago-no-uraryakuzu | ||
| 19 | Yoshida at Tōkaidō | Tōkaidō Yoshida | ||
| 20 | The Kazusa Province sea route | Kazusa no kairo | ||
| 21 | Nihonbashi bridge in Edo | Edo Nihon-bashi | ||
| 22 | Barrier Town on the Sumida River | Sumidagawa Sekiya no sato | ||
| 23 | Bay of Noboto | Noboto-ura | ||
| 24 | The lake of Hakone in Sagami Province | Sōshū Hakone kosui | ||
| 25 | Mount Fuji reflects in Lake Kawaguchi, seen from the Misaka Pass in Kai Province | Kōshū Misaka suimen | ||
| 26 | Hodogaya on the Tōkaidō | Tōkaidō Hodogaya | ||
| 27 | Tama River in Musashi Province | Bushū Tamagawa | ||
| 28 | Asakusa Hongan-ji temple in the Eastern capital [Edo] | Tōto Asakusa honganji | ||
| 29 | Tsukuda Island in Musashi Province | Buyō Tsukuda-jima | ||
| 30 | Shichiri beach in Sagami Province | Soshū Shichiri-ga-hama | ||
| 31 | Umezawa in Sagami Province | Soshū umezawanoshō | ||
| 32 | Kajikazawa in Kai Province | Kōshū Kajikazawa | ||
| 33 | Mishima Pass in Kai Province | Kōshū Mishima-goe | ||
| 34 | Mount Fuji from the mountains of Tōtōmi | Tōtōumi sanchū | ||
| 35 | A View of Mount Fuji Across Lake Suwa (Lake Suwa in Shinano Province) | Shinshū Suwa-ko | ||
| 36 | Ushibori in Hitachi Province | Jōshū Ushibori |
| No. | Image | English title | Japanese title | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Goten-yama-hill, Shinagawa on the Tōkaidō | Tōkaidō Shinagawa Goten'yama no Fuji | ||
| 2 | Honjo Tatekawa, the timberyard at Honjo, Sumida | Honjo Tatekawa | ||
| 3 | Pleasure District at Senju | Senju Hana-machi Yori Chōbō no Fuji | ||
| 4 | Nakahara in Sagami Province | Sōshū Nakahara | ||
| 5 | Ōno Shinden in Suruga Province | Sunshū Ōno-shinden | ||
| 6 | Climbing on Fuji | Shojin tozan | ||
| 7 | The Tea plantation of Katakura in Suruga Province | Sunshū Katakura chaen no Fuji | ||
| 8 | The Fuji from Kanaya on the Tōkaidō | Tōkaidō Kanaya no Fuji | ||
| 9 | Dawn at Isawa in Kai Province | Kōshū Isawa no Akatsuki | ||
| 10 | The back of Fuji from the Minobu river | Minobu-gawa ura Fuji |
A collection of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji prints contained in the wellness spa of the Costa Concordia was lost during the collision of the ship on January 13, 2012.[8]
All forty-six prints (the original thirty-six plus the ten additions) were featured in the exhibition "Hokusai: 36 Views of Mount Fuji" at the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian's museums of Asian art, in the spring of 2012.
The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji prints were displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as part of a Hokusai exhibit April 5 through August 9, 2015.[9]
The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji prints were displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia as part of a Hokusai exhibit 21 July through 22 October 2017, featuring two copies of The Great Wave off Kanagawa, one from the NGV and one from Japan Ukiyo-e Museum.[10]
There are fewer than 10 complete sets of the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, with prominent pieces held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MFA Boston, the British Museum, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.[11]
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is often sold in prominent auction houses focused on Japanese art, such as that of Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, etc.
In 2002, a complete set sold at Sotheby's went for $1.47 million, through an anonymous buyer.
In 2013, another complete set was assembled by Dr. Jintendra V. Singh, a professor from Wharton School, who was inspired by Mt. Fuji from seeing the mountain on flights to Japan as well as his previous Hindu pilgrimages to Mount Everest and Mount Kailash. He purchased Fuji Seen From Kanaya on the Tokaido first, with the iconic pieces acquired from 2014-2016, the final print was acquired in January 2023.
On 19 March 2024, the Singh collection went onto auction at Christie's, which then sold for $3.559 million from an estimated bid of $3-5 million. The proceeds has gone into Singh's trust.[12] [13]