Kazusa no kairo
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
Katsushika Hokusai
Artwork Description
This print depicts two large sailing vessels navigating the waters toward Edo, transporting essential goods such as rice, sake, and soy sauce from the Bōsō Peninsula. The ships dominate the foreground, their towering sails and rigging forming a dense architectural framework across the composition.
Mount Fuji appears small between the masts and ropes, framed by the geometry of the vessels. The contrast in scale is deliberate: immense cargo ships in the foreground, the distant sacred mountain compressed within their structure. Through this device, Hokusai transforms maritime transport into a visual aperture.
The slight curvature of the horizon enhances spatial depth, while glimpses of faces and figures visible through cabin openings animate the ships with quiet human activity. To the right, the coastline of the Miura Peninsula anchors the scene geographically, reinforcing the route toward Edo.
Unlike the elemental violence of The Great Wave, this composition emphasizes organized movement and economic exchange. The sea is not chaotic but navigable. Human industry fills the space with purposeful direction. Fuji remains distant yet constant, presiding over the flow of commerce.
Hokusai’s familiarity with coastal travel informs the scene’s structural precision. The print captures not merely ships, but the network of maritime transport that sustained Edo-period life.
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 portraits of actors and courtesans into landscapes, nature, and scenes of daily life.
His series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji marked a decisive transformation in Japanese printmaking. Through bold structural framing and dynamic perspective, Hokusai redefined landscape as a space of lived experience and visual philosophy.
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.
