| Title: |
Konya'cho no Fuji 'Fugaku hyakkei' (Fuji of the Dyers' Quarter 'One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji') |
| Artist: |
Hokusai, Katsushika (Tokyo (Edo), Japan, 1760 - 1849) |
| Date: |
1834 & 1835 (Tohekido Edition: 1852) |
| Medium: |
Original Japanese Woodcut |
| Publisher: |
Tohekido |
| Note: |
Katsushika Hokusai: The most influential Japanese
master of landscapes and figure studies, Katsushika Hokusai created many masterpieces
throughout his long and productive life. Studying under Shunsho, Hokusai’s
earliest art was devoted to competent actor prints and figure studies
in the style of his master. Then, in the first decade of the nineteenth
century, Hokusai’s tireless studies led him to examine both Western
art and Chinese paintings and prints. He thus broke from the standard ‘Ukiyo-e’ style
to forge a path for his own unique genius. This would lead him to some
of the greatest artistic examinations of the relationship between man
and nature in the history of art, such as, Thirty-Six Views of Mt.
Fuji (1831) and Fugaku hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji) (1834-1835). |
| |
In many ways, Hokusai’s two series of Fuji woodcuts
stand as the culmination of both his life and art. After all, such recognizable
masterpieces as “The Great Wave” originates from these sets.
Mount Fuji, however, represented much more to both the Japanese people and to Katsushika Hokusai. It stood as a primary symbol in all Japanese religions
and came to signify for Hokusai the complex workings of immortality.
In this vein the artist did not embark upon his greatest woodcuts until
after age seventy and was firmly convinced that even finer art would
be crafted by him at the ripe age of one hundred. Thus Hokusai did not
sign the woodcuts from the Fugaku hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji) with his name,
but with the appellation, ‘Old Man Mad About Drawing’. |
| |
Katsushika Hokusai was firmly convinced that Fugaku hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji) constituted his best collection of artwork. Most scholars today
agree. Each of the one hundred woodcuts (either single panels or diptychs)
is unified by the presence of Mt. Fuji, either in detail, in the background
or in a reflected surface, such as water, mirrors and even within the
shiny surface of a teacup. Each is further united in its most penetrating
examination of life and nature. It is not an exaggeration to state that
the One Hundred Views stands as one of the greatest achievements of world
art. |
| |
The publishing history of the Fugaku hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji) is well is well documented.
The entire set consists of three volumes. Volumes 1 and 2 were first published
in Edo in 1834-35. Known as the ‘falcon tail’ edition the blocks
were again reprinted in a second edition before the famine of 1837. Both
volumes were then re-issued by Tohekido in Nagoya at the time of the first
publication of Volume 3 in the late 1840’s. Then, around 1852, a
more complex edition was introduced by Tohekido in which completely new
color blocks were designed and cut to be printed with Hokusai’s original
key blocks; one in grey and one in salmon pink. This original woodcut, entitled, Konya'cho no Fuji hails
from this edition, the only edition, in fact, that contains the extra color
printing. All woodcuts from editions of the One Hundred Views are very
scarce and in great demand. |
| |
Konya'cho no Fuji (Fuji of the Dyers' Quarter): In the foreground of this original
Hokusai woodcut, we see the strips of cotton fabric hanging from a dyer's
rooftop drying stand. Mt. Fuji appears in the background.
Typical of Hokusai, Konya'cho no Fuji challenges and enriches
our way of seeing. The strong vertical lines of the cloths is played against
the diagonal lines of the poles and the mountain itself. And only upon
careful scrutiny does one discern that one of the cloths is moving. An
invisible hand below is lifting this cloth up to the drying stand by means of a bamboo pole. The
title of this original woodcut translates to Fuji of the dyers' quarter.
The Harvard Art Museum, Department of Asian Art, Division of Asian and
Mediterranean art, includes an impression of Konya'cho no Fuji in its collection,
(Inventory # 1933.4.1068). |
| Raisonne: |
Henry Smith, Hokusai: One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji,Braziller, New York,
1988. |
| Edition: |
Catalogue #38. Fourth Edition as Issued by Tohikedo in
1852. |
| Source: |
Fugaku hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji) |
| Size: |
7 1/4 X 5 Small Chuban (Sizes in inches are approximate, height preceding width of plate-mark or image.) |
| |
Matted with 100% Archival Materials |
| Buy Now |
Price: $550.00 US |
| Condition: |
Printed on nineteenth century Japanese mulberry (rice)
paper and with full margins as published by Tohekido in 1852. A fine,
richly printed impression and in excellent condition throughout. Konya'cho
no Fuji (Fuji of the Dyers' Quarter) represents a brilliant, original example of the famous landscape art of Katsushika Hokusai. |
| Subject: |
Hokusai, original woodcut, Konya'cho no Fuji (Fuji of the
Dyers' Quarter), One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji, landscape art of Hokusai,
ways of seeing. |
| Important Information: |
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