Sōshū Nakahara
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Katsushika Hokusai
Artwork Description
Sōshū Nakahara portrays a lively stretch of road along the pilgrimage route to Mount Ōyama, one of the most popular sacred destinations of the Edo period. Located in present-day Hiratsuka, Nakahara functioned as both resting point and gateway for travelers moving westward.
The foreground is filled with diverse figures: a father and son carrying offerings, itinerant monks bearing a small portable shrine, a mother heading toward the fields with her child on her back, and a man harvesting shellfish along the riverbank. A wooden bridge spans the scene, while a roadside marker engraved with Fudō Myōō anchors the image in contemporary religious culture.
Rather than dramatizing the pilgrimage itself, Hokusai focuses on the texture of daily life unfolding within sacred geography. Labor, devotion, and travel coexist naturally. Even commerce is subtly present: a porter at the edge of the composition carries goods marked with the crest of the publisher Nishimuraya, embedding the reality of economic exchange into the spiritual landscape.
Mount Fuji appears faintly in the distance, almost understated. Its still silhouette contrasts with the human movement below. Through this balance, Hokusai explores the coexistence of permanence and transience—of the eternal mountain and the fleeting passage of human lives.
About Katsushika Hokusai
Katsushika Hokusai was one of the most influential ukiyo-e artists of the Edo period. Active as both painter and printmaker, he expanded ukiyo-e beyond actor portraits into landscapes, nature, and scenes of everyday life.
His Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji redefined Japanese landscape printmaking. Across the series, Fuji functions not merely as scenery but as a structural and philosophical constant—witness to faith, labor, commerce, and silence.
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.
