Hokusai’s 100 Views of Mount Fuji from the collection of Ei Nakau

The Manggha Museum is going to exhibit for the first time a set of black-and-white sumizuri-e woodblock prints from the gift of a private collector and enthusiast of traditional Japanese art. In 2019, Ei Nakau, a connoisseur and promoter of majestic ukiyo-e compositions, decided to gift to our museum a set of three books containing the series of prints One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai. By the donor’s decision, the prints were to be detached from the books and shown to the public as stand-alone works of art. We are showing this fascinating set to take a close look at the most interesting works created by Hokusai, perhaps the most famous Japanese woodblock print artist.

Situated on the border of Shizuoka and Yamanashi Prefectures, nearly centrally on the span of Honshu Island, at a distance of one hundred kilometres from today’s Japanese capital, Fuji is without a doubt one of the best known mountains in the world. Revered and worshipped by the Japanese to this day, it delights and awes those chosen by fortune to get a full view of it, as Fuji is usually largely concealed by a thick layer of clouds. Its image has been captured and reproduced a countless number of times – by painters, print artists, and poets. The shape of Fuji has also been popularised by decorative crafts and special occasion prints. The Japanese sacred mountain has always a been beautiful landscape feature, a tourist attraction, and a place of worship, but it has also acquired a unique status as a kind of symbol of the Land of the Rising Sun.

The series One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku hyakkei) in the collection of the Manggha Museum probably comes from the second edition of Hokusai’s monochrome prints depicting the mountain in various guises. Dated for the latter half of the 1870s, it was published by Eirakuya Tōshirō. The three volumes comprise 102 images in total, some on one page, some presented as a diptych, each showing Mount Fuji from a different vantage point, in different surroundings and circumstances. It was not the first take on the subject by the artist: between 1830 1832, Hokusai published a series of colour prints Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, including such famous works as Under the Great Wave Off Kanagawa; Fine Wind, Clear Morning, and Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit.

The first two volumes of Fugaku hyakkei came out in 1834 and 1835. The third and final volume was probably released before or soon after Hokusai’s death. It is a singular meeting of the artist and the Mountain at the final stage of his long life. Only a few of these compositions seem to have been painted from nature while all the others are unfettered interpretations of spaces and places intended to convey the all-embracing might of Fuji-san as best as the artist could.