Sanki fukaku katachi o kuzusu 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.
“At a superficial observation, two pictorially contradictory solutions. In the foreground, an accurate drawing of a woodcutter and a hunter exchanging fire over a pipe; here the line, like that of the huts that can be glimpsed behind them, is precise, meticulous. In the background, a few dense brush strokes resolve the hills, thick with conifers, and the Fuji. But it is precisely the contrast that makes the converging movement of the two men towards the flame, the fulcrum of the pictorial construction, more intimate and reflective, while all around, the darkness of the night descends, which slowly smooths out the contours of things to transform them into looming masses" (GC Calza, 1982).
The same theme Hokusai has already anticipated in Mangwa xi, Senchu no shigure (1833).