Minneapolis Institute of Art

Mishima High Road in Kai Province

Katsushika Hokusai; Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi

Date

1830–33

Medium

Woodblock print (aizuri-e), ink and color on paper

Department

Asian Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

One of the most memorable designs from Hokusai’s famous Fuji series depicts Mount Fuji next to the thick trunk of a gigantic cedar tree— a Yatate Cedar (yatate sugi) that extends far beyond the top edge of the image. Such a composition testifies to Hokusai’s powerful imagination, as there is no historical evidence that such a location with this view existed. It is generally believed that this location is the Kagosaka Pass, south of Lake Yamanaka, but no such tree is recorded to have stood there. 25 kilometres (15.5 miles) north of Kagosaka at the Sasago Pass, however, there is a tree that still stands today, believed to be 1, 000 years old. In volume seven of Hokusai’s Sketches (Hokusai manga), he provides two separate images of Mount Fuji and the Sasago tree, from which Mount Fuji is not visible. It seems that Hokusai decided to merge both in order to create a new and powerful, albeit imagined, view of Japan’s holy mountain for this design. Asia

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