Series : One Hundred Views of Fuji, Fugaku Hyakkei
Technique: nishikie, woodcuts in two shades of gray.
Format: hanshinbon koban diptych (about 183x253 mm)
Signatures : Zen Hokusai Iitsu aratame Gakyorojin Manji
Artist's seal : Fuji no Yama
Dates : engraved between 1834 – 1836, impressed between 1850 and 1870
Engravers: Egawa Tomekichi and Tsentaro
Publisher: Katano Toshiro.
Splendid proof with good contrasts, in the third edition from the original woodcuts. 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.
Fuji can be glimpsed from an elegant bamboo curtain.
The superb beauty of this composition, more complex than it might appear, is the result of the play of the double fan of the bamboos (mature ones in the foreground, young and still covered in their sheath those in the background) whose stems with a curved line follow that, extremely linear and pure, of the slopes of the sacred mountain that rises, white, in the distance.
Bamboo can withstand the most impetuous winds, tolerates cold winters and very hot summers. In classical iconography it is a symbol of flexibility, strength and ability to adapt.