Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji is a popular subject for Japanese art due to its cultural and religious significance. This belief can be traced to The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, where a goddess deposits the elixir of life on the peak. As the historian Henry Smith{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JHnmAQAACAAJ&q=Henry+Smith+mount+fuji|title=One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji|last=Smith|first=Henry|date=1988|publisher=Thames and Hudson|isbn=9780500235188|language=en}} explains, "Thus from an early time, Mt. Fuji was seen as the source of the secret of immortality, a tradition that was at the heart of Hokusai's own obsession with the mountain."Smith

Each image was made through a process whereby Hokusai's drawing on paper was glued to a woodblock to guide the carving. The original design is therefore lost in the process. The block was then covered with ink and applied to paper to create the image (see Woodblock printing in Japan for further details). The complexity of Hokusai's images includes the wide range of colors he used, which required the use of a separate block for each color appearing in the image.

The earliest prints in the series were made with largely blue tones (aizuri-e), including the key blocks which provide an image's outlines. Prussian blue pigment had not long been introduced to Japan from Europe and Hokusai used it extensively, ensuring its popularity. Once the publisher, Nishimura, was sure of the series' success, prints were made with multiple colours (nishiki-e). Nishimura had planned to expand the series to more than a hundred prints, but publication stopped at forty-six.Calza, p. 230

The most famous single image from the series is widely known in English as The Great Wave off Kanagawa. It is Hokusai's most celebrated work and is often considered the most recognizable work of Japanese art in the world. Another iconic work from Thirty-six Views is Fine Wind, Clear Morning, also known as Red Fuji, which has been described as "one of the simplest and at the same time one of the most outstanding of all Japanese prints".Calza, p. 471

While Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is the most famous ukiyo-e series to focus on Mount Fuji, there are several other works with the same subject, including Hiroshige's later series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji and Hokusai's subsequent book [http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/fugaku-hyakkei-one-hundred-views-of-mount-fuji-334906 One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji] (published 1834–1835).

In his 1896 book on Hokusai, French art critic Edmond de Goncourt wrote that despite its "rather crude colors", it was, "the album which inspires the landscapes of the impressionists of the present moment." The French artist Henri Rivière (1864–1951) published the set of color lithographs "Thirty-six views of the Tour Eiffel" in 1902, inspired by the seminal print set of Hokusai, one of the many influences of Japanese art on late 19th century and early 20th century French art (Japonism, known as "Japonisme" in French)

A collection of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji prints contained in the wellness spa of the Costa Concordia was lost during the collision of the ship on January 13, 2012.{{cite web |title=Costa Concordia: Threat of treasure hunters |url=http://www.tobetravelagent.com/costa-concordia-threat-of-treasure-hunters/ |publisher=To Be A Travel Agent }}

All forty-six prints (the original thirty-six plus the ten additions) were featured in the exhibition Hokusai: 36 Views of Mount Fuji at the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, the Smithsonian's museums of Asian art, in the spring of 2012.

The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji prints were displayed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as part of a Hokusai exhibit April 5 through August 9, 2015.{{cite web |title=Hokusai Features Legendary Artist, Best Known for Iconic Great Wave |url=http://www.mfa.org/news/hokusai}}

The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji prints were displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia as part of a Hokusai exhibit 21 July through 22 October 2017, featuring two copies of The Great Wave off Kanagawa, one from the NGV and one from Japan Ukiyo-e Museum.{{cite web |title=Hokusai |url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/media_release/hokusai}}

There are fewer than 10 complete sets of the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, with prominent pieces held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MFA Boston, the British Museum, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.{{Cite news |last1=Fabrikant |first1=Geraldine |date=2024-03-18 |title=One Collector's High Mountain Road to Hokusai |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/arts/design/katsushika-hokusai-prints-auction.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240318131021/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/18/arts/design/katsushika-hokusai-prints-auction.html |archive-date=2024-03-18 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2024-03-21}}

Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji is often sold in prominent auction houses focused on Japanese art, such as that of Christie's, Sotheby's, Bonhams, etc.

In 2002, a complete set sold at Sotheby's went for $1.47 million, through an anonymous buyer.

In 2013, another complete set was assembled by Dr. Jitendra V. Singh, a professor from Wharton School, who was inspired by Mt. Fuji from seeing the mountain on flights to Japan as well as his previous Hindu pilgrimages to Mount Everest and Mount Kailash. He purchased Fuji Seen From Kanaya on the Tokaido first, with the iconic pieces acquired from 2014 to 2016, the final print was acquired in January 2023.

On 19 March 2024, the Singh collection went onto auction at Christie's, which then sold for $3.559 million from an estimated bid of $3–5 million. The proceeds has gone into Singh's trust.{{Cite web |date=March 2024 |title=LIVE AUCTION 22643 - JAPANESE AND KOREAN ART Lot 135: Fugaku sanjurokkei (Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji) |url=https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6472565?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intObjectID=6472565&from=salessummary&lid=1 |access-date=21 March 2024 |publisher=Christie's}}{{Cite web |title=Hokusai's rare Mt. Fuji collection sold for $3.6 mil. at N.Y. auction |url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/03/593061bd27ea-hokusais-rare-mt-fuji-collection-sold-for-36-mil-at-ny-auction.html |access-date=2024-03-21 |publisher=Kyodo News+}}

• One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji
• Three Views of Japan
• Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji by Hiroshige

{{Reflist}}

• Balcou, Amelie (2019). "Hokusai: Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji". Prestel. {{ISBN|978-3791386072}}.
• {{Cite book|title=Hokusai|year=2003|first=Gian Carlo|last=Calza|publisher=Phaidon|isbn=0714844578}}
• Marks, Andreas (2021). "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji". New York: Taschen. {{ISBN|978-3836575720}}.
• Nagata, Seiji (1999). Hokusai: Genius of the Japanese Ukiyo-e. Tokyo: Kodansha.
• Price, Jonathan Reeve (2020). "Viewing Hokusai Viewing Mount Fuji". Albuquerque, New Mexico: Communication Circle. {{ISBN|978-0-9719954-7-5}}.
• Smith, Henry D. II (1988). Hokusai: One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji. New York: George Braziller, Inc., Publishers. {{ISBN|0-8076-1195-6}}.
• Thompson, Sarah (2019). "Hokusai's Landscapes: The Complete Series". Boston: MFA Publications. {{ISBN|978-0878468669}}.
• Zelazny, Roger (1985). "24 Views of Mount Fuji". In Cthulu 2000: Stories (1995). Sauk City, WI: Arkham House. {{ISBN|978-0345422033}}.

{{Commons category|36 Views of Mount Fuji}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060719103456/http://man-pai.com/Grandes_series/Hokusai_Fuji36/hokusai_36_vistas_monte_fuji_e.htm Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji]
• [http://www.artelino.com/articles/hokusai.asp A short biography of Hokusai including a section on the 36 Views of Mt. Fuji series.]
• [https://www.fujiarts.com/collection/hokusai/thirty-six-views-of-fuji-reprints A brief description and woodblock reprint collection of Hokusai's 36 Views of Mt. Fuji series.]

{{Hokusai}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji}}

Category:1832 works

Category:Works by Hokusai

Category:Ukiyo-e print series

Category:Landscape prints

Category:Mount Fuji