Honjo Tatekawa
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Katsushika Hokusai
Artwork Description
Honjo Tatekawa depicts the lumberyards along the Tatekawa Canal in Edo’s Honjo district, an area associated with timber merchants who supplied building materials to the growing city. The canal operates as both setting and structural axis, organizing the space between foreground labor and distant horizon.
The foreground is dominated by stacked timbers rising vertically on the left and bundled lumber forming a dense mass on the right. These upright and diagonal elements create a narrow corridor that directs the eye inward. The canal recedes through this constructed channel, guiding vision toward Mount Fuji, which appears small yet clearly positioned along the horizon line.
The composition is structured through strong vertical posts, angled beams, and the repeated linear rhythm of cut logs. These diagonals generate tension and movement, while the horizontal strip of distant land stabilizes the frame. Fuji anchors this horizon, functioning as a fixed reference beyond the layered density of the lumberyard.
Workers stack, saw, and carry timber across the foreground. Their gestures create motion within a tightly organized geometric field. The heavy vertical masses contrast with the open sky and distant mountain, establishing a tension between industrial density and geological permanence.
Through this arrangement, the print situates human labor within a broader spatial system. The energy of construction occupies the foreground, while Fuji remains unchanged beyond it, reinforcing the recurring contrast in the series between human activity and enduring natural form.
About Katsushika Hokusai
Katsushika Hokusai was one of the most influential ukiyo-e artists of the Edo period. Active as painter and printmaker, he expanded ukiyo-e beyond portraiture into landscapes, nature, and scenes of everyday life.
In Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, Hokusai transformed landscape into a structural system—juxtaposing motion and stillness, labor and faith, industry and leisure—while anchoring each composition with the enduring presence of Mount Fuji.
Reproduction
This work is a 20th century lithographic reproduction of Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.
It is not an original Edo period woodblock print, but a later limited edition lithograph.
Hand printed and numbered 180/300 in pencil on the lower margin.
Details
Medium: Lithograph
Edition: 180/300
Size: 410 mm × 600 mm
All artworks are sold as shown in the photographs.
