Ukiyoe Reproductions - landscapes

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Katsushika Hokusai Kajikazawa in Kai Province (Koshu Kajikazawa), from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji (Fugaku sanjii-rokkei) Price A$130 (unframed)) Status New reproduction Condition Excellent Size 385mm x 275mm Availability For sale

The rolling waves give the impression of the sea, but the fisherman in fact casts his lines (attached to a net or to cormorants?) into the fast-flowing Fuji River at Kajikazawa at the north-west base of Mt Fuji, just below where the Kamanashi and Fuefuki Rivers combine. Beside him on the rock sits a small boy with a basket for the fish. Above the clouds is just the peak of Fuji, the lines of its slopes like more fishing lines. Precariously, man attempts to exploit nature. The earliest all-blue printings vary considerably in the density of their colouring and the amount of gradation visible across the foreground waves. The gradation on the summit of Fuji, too, varies from a narrow sliver down the right slope to a wide band that entirely fills the lines of the peak . The outlines on the British Museum impression, which seems somewhat later, appear almost black in reproduction, but are in fact very dark blue. The margin on the right is quite full. Yet later printings, represented by another, inferior impression in the Museum collection, have dark green wiped to lime green on the foreground rocks, and add brown to the robes of the figures and a narrow pink band near the top of the sky. They are missing the seals in the bottom right corner.

Timothy Clark 100 views of Mt Fuji The British Museum Press 2002 reprint 2001