"Nakahara in Sagami Province" from 36 views of Mt.Fuji series by Hokusai

Description : 

Nakahara in Sagami Province depicts the lively intersection of faith, labor, and daily life along the pilgrimage route to Mount Ōyama, one of Edo-period Japan’s most popular sacred destinations. Located in what is now Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Nakahara was both a resting point and a gateway for pilgrims on their journey westward.

In the foreground, a diverse group of travelers occupies the narrow road: a father and son carrying offerings, a family of mendicant monks bearing a small shrine, a mother heading to the fields with her baby on her back, and a man harvesting clams by the riverside. The wooden bridge and the waymarker engraved with Fudō Myōō—protector of the faithful—subtly anchor the scene in the spiritual culture of the time.

Hokusai’s mastery lies in his quiet observation of ordinary life. Rather than glorifying the pilgrimage itself, he portrays the rhythms of everyday existence in the shadow of sacred mountains. The rightmost figure, a porter carrying goods marked with the publisher Nishimuraya’s crest, integrates commercial reality into the composition—hinting at how spirituality, livelihood, and economy intertwined in Edo Japan.

The faint silhouette of Mount Fuji, seen beyond the distant plains, unifies the composition. Its stillness contrasts the human activity below, revealing Hokusai’s enduring fascination with the coexistence of permanence and transience—of the eternal and the fleeting.

Hokusai Katsushika : 
Known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese Ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. 
He is best known for the woodblock print series Thirty six views of Mt Fuji, which includes the iconic print The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. Hokusai was instrumental in developing Ukiyo-e from a style of portraiture largely focused on courtesans and actors into a much broader style of art that focused on landscapes, plants, and animals. His works are thought to have had a significant influence on Vincent Van Gogh and Claude Monete during the wave of Japonism that spread across Europe in the late 19th century.

REPRODUCTION : In the 20th century, artists and publishers collaborated to recreate famous woodblock prints, providing them to Japanese collectors and Westerners seeking rare designs.
New blocks were made, and artisan printers painstakingly printed each color using the same method as the 19th-century originals.

Limited edition lithograph
Hand-printed, numbered 180/300 on margin.
Size : 
410mm x 600mm