hokusai & hiroshige: the thirty-six views of mount fuji from two different perspectives

ALLISON MICHELLE MORRIS

Hokusai & Hiroshige The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji from Two

Different Perspectives

This paper will explore the creative similarities and differences between Hokusai’s and Hiroshige’s “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” print series via three specific prints from both artists, as well as the two series’ influence on Western artists.

Hokusai & Hiroshige; A.M. Morris| 2

HOKUSAI & HIROSHIGE:

The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji from Two

Different Perspectives

In 1823, Ukiyo-e print artist Hokusai released his first edition of his print series “The

Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” and released a second edition of the prints in 1831, with the

second edition featuring ten additional prints. Nearly thirty years later, Hokusai’s artistic rival

Hiroshige released his own “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” series, the first edition in 1852 and

the second edition in 1858, with the second edition also featuring an additional ten prints, as

well as portrait orientation. While both artists focused their series on the same iconic feature of

the Japanese landscape, their styles and cultural impact were varied and unique.

EDO PERIOD OF THE BUNKA-BUNSEI: AN EVOLVING CULTURE

The Edo Period of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century is known as the

Bunka-Bunsei epoch, and is commonly associated with a burgeoning urban culture. Patrons of

the arts were no longer limited to court nobles, great monasteries, or powerful diamyo, but

rather flourished under the direction of the merchants, the samurai, and the townspeople. An

evolving economy lead to a new importance associated with the merchants; a previously despised


class, they had the financial means and opportunities to support the lifestyle growing within the

urban areas, and this included supporting the arts:

A life of leisure, particularly evening leisure, now became available at a price to the city

dweller. There were teahouses and taverns, many of which also served as places of

assignation for lovers. The pleasure quarters of Edo and Osaka became famous and

provided for the enjoyments of unrestrained

good company as well as those for sex. The

theaters and public baths were more

frequented; and tourism, travel for pleasure

and sightseeing, became more common.

(Morton, 127)

With this newfound economic freedom, even the

“everyday” man could participate in this subculture

that had previously been exclusive to the Kyoto

courts.

Figure 1: Plum Blossom Viewing at Night (Harunobu Suzuki). An example of other types of prints which were popular during Hokusai and Hiroshige’s time. While both artists designed prints which included figures like this young lady in Harunobu’s print, their specialties were landscapes.


To reflect this growing economy, woodblock prints became a common means of artistic

expression. Because of the social times, these prints became extremely popular because of their

broad appeal and accessibility. Woodblock prints were relatively cheap and easy to make, so

they were accessible for both the productions houses and the individual buyers, namely the

“everyday” man. Furthermore, every print was different, usually through color choices or the

placement of different blocks on the press, making it a unique piece of art. (Milford) Early

prints were devoid of color, and were striking with their monochromatic (black and white)

coloring. As the art form progressed, popular colors included blues, reds, purples and yellows;

censorship and restrictions on these colors – especially purples – made these prints more highly

sought after.

In the late eighteenth century, prints of kabuki actors and exotically beautiful courtesans

were exceedingly popular, which allowed the Japanese populace to “participate” in this culture

that they had previously been denied because of their limited economic status. However, by the

early nineteenth century, landscapes depicting peasant life became more popular than the

fantastical figures of actors and concubines.


THE ARTISTS BEHIND THE PRINTS

Hokusai Katsushika was born in the Katsushika Ward of Edo in 1760 and began to show

signs of artistic talent by the age of five. When he was fourteen, Hokusai began his

apprenticeship to a woodblock engraver. By 1795, he had taken the name of Tawaraya Sori II

and became the head of the Rimpa School. As Hokusai’s notoriety rose within Japan, he began

to refine his style, often designing prints of nature and landscape scenes that became increasingly

popular during the early part of the nineteenth century. Although Hokusai had published prints

depicting landscapes before, such as the “A Guide to Both Banks of the Sumida River” in 1800,

the “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” exhibited his clean and sophisticated aesthetic and was a

precursor to his masterpiece “The One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji.”

Hokusai’s artistic rival Hiroshige Ando was born in Edo to a fire warden in 1797.

Hiroshige began is formal studies in 1811 at the School of Utagawa under Toyoshiro at the age

of fourteen and was heavily influenced by the nanga and kano art styles. By 1830 at age thirty-

three, he began to work exclusively on landscapes and prints of birds and flowers, such as “The

Eight Views of Omi” and his Kisokido series released in 1837.

The subject of virtually all of Hiroshige's mature work was the Japanese landscape, which

he portrayed in a lyrical manner with an emphasis upon the misty atmosphere, the


picturesque old pines, the sea with its fishing boats, and the green or snow-covered

mountains…. Hiroshige depicted the landscapes, as well as the people traveling about the

country or performing their daily tasks, with such care that they serve as a record of

Japanese life of the mid-19th century. (Munsterberg)

Due to the popularity of Hokusai’s “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji,” Hiroshige followed suit

and produced his own series about Mount Fuji.

Figure 2: (LEFT) Hokusai's Hydrangea and Swallow (1830s). (RIGHT) Hiroshige’s Susaki and the Jumantsubo Plain (1830s).


THE THIRTY-SIX VIEWS OF MOUNT FUJI

Mount Fuji, Japan’s tallest peak at 12,389 feet, 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,1 where a goddess deposits the elixir of life on the peak. From ancient times, Mount Fuji

was seen as the source of the secret of immortality, intriguing the Japanese people, as well as

influencing artists like Hokusai and Hiroshige (Smith).

“Hokusai’s vision…reflected and heightened public consciousness of Mount Fuji as a

noble yet dangerous peak. Although it was a hundred miles away from Edo and had not

erupted since 1707, city residents were keenly aware that it was an active volcano and

held in veneration.” (Guth. 114)

Hiroshige was also drawn to Mount Fuji, especially in part to Hokusai’s success with the

symbolic mountain. Hiroshige was able to develop his own distinctive style after modeling after

Hokusai’s successful series: “Hiroshige's early work, which consisted of actor and courtesan

prints, was neither original nor particularly distinguished, and it was only when he turned to

1 The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is a Japanese fairytale about a beautiful baby discovered in a bamboo stalk named Kaguya-hime.

Kaguya-hime is from Tsuki-no-Miyako (Moon Capital), and when she is grown she is taken away by the Moon guardians to return to

her people. In another version of the story, the emperor, who had fallen in love with Kaguya-hime, has his attendants burn a love letter

on the peak of Mount Fuji, hoping that the height of the volcano would allow the smoke to drift upwards toward the moon so that she

could read his message.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter


landscapes, after Hokusai's great success…that Hiroshige found his own unique style and

achieved a fame even greater than that of Hokusai,” (Munsterberg).

Both artists released two editions of their series; Hokusai released his first series of the

“Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” nearly thirty years before Hiroshige. Despite this time

difference, both artists released similar prints depicting Japanese peasant life through their

landscapes.


The Power of Water:

The Great Wave off Kanagawa vs. Rough Seas at Shichirigahama

Figure 3: (LEFT) Kanagawa-oki nami-ura (The Great Wave off Kanagawa), Hokusai (1823). (RIGHT) Sagami shichirigahama fūha (Rough Sea at Shichirigahama (“Seven Ri Beach”) in Sagami Province), Hiroshige (1852).

The Great Wave and Rough Seas both concern water, and how the water affects Japan

The billowing waves frame Mount Fuji, but Hokusai’s use of perspective is much stronger; the

waves are far more exaggerated and overshadow Mount Fuji in size and power. In Hiroshige’s

print, the waves are about the same size as Mount Fuji in the background, diminishing the

impact of scale. Furthermore, both prints feature boats with Japanese fishermen, but the plight

of the fishermen in Hokusai’s print is far more dramatic – it seems there is no way the

fisherman can survive the storm. However, in Hiroshige’s print, the wave is in the foreground

and the boats are in the background, seemingly out of harm’s way; in Hiroshige’s later series

(1858), his depiction of waves and water is very similar in style to Hokusai’s Great Wave, like

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_(unit)


Suruga satta no kaijō (The Sea off Suruga Province) and Bōshū hota no kaigan (The Hota Coast

in Awa Province).

Pleasure Culture:

Pleasure District at Senju vs. The Suruga District in the Eastern Capital

Figure 4: (LEFT) Senju Hana-machi Yori Chōbō no Fuji (Pleasure District at Senju), Hokusai (1833). (RIGHT) Tōto Surugachō (The Suruga District in the Eastern Capital), Hiroshige (1858).

The Pleasure District at Senji and Suruga District both concern “pleasure districts” and of

people enjoying themselves during leisure time in the Edo period as a result of this newfound

economic freedom. In both prints, the people are enjoying themselves during leisure time; in

Hokusai’s print, there is a line of young men entering a brothel house or theatre. The colors are


more muted in this specific print than others in Hokusai’s series, however there is still the color

punch of the blue line differentiating Mount Fuji from the neutral tones of the houses, rice

paddies and figures in the foreground. The Suruga District was a popular shopping and

entertainment district. In Hiroshige’s print, two figures in green are walking down the street,

flanked with musicians on either side. Hiroshige plays more with color, and the expansive detail

on the figures’ robes brings a liveliness to the print.

Mount Fuji is more prominent in Hokusai’s print than in Hiroshige’s print; Mount Fuji

dominants the upper skyline of Hokusai’s print, whereas in Hiroshige’s print, the mountain

seems to blend into the line of shops and mimics the shape of the musicians’ hats below it. Also

important is Hiroshige’s introduction of the portrait layout of prints; all of Hiroshige’s original

“Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” and both of Hokusai’s series’ are in a traditional landscape

layout.


Leisure Time:

Teahouse at Koishikawa the Morning after a Snowfall vs. The Teahouse with the View of Mt. Fuji

at Zōshigaya

Figure 5: (LEFT) Koishikawa yuki no ashita (Teahouse at Koishikawa the Morning after a Snowfall), Hokusai (1823). (RIGHT) Zōshigaya fujimi chaya (The Teahouse with the View of Mt. Fuji at Zōshigaya), Hiroshige (1858).

Similarly to the “pleasure district” prints, the Teahouse prints highlight another aspect of

Edo life. The arts flourished during this time, and tea houses reflect this burgeoning trend.

Hokusai’s print Teahouse at Koishikawa the Morning after a Snowfall is nearly monochromatic

with the exception of the punches of blue and green ink. The conical shape of the teahouse roof

is echoed in the shape of Mount Fuji. Hiroshige’s print The Teahouse with the View of Mt. Fuji


at Zōshigaya features two figures enjoying tea and gazing out towards the mountain in the

background. This print is also nearly monochromatic with the exception of red ink echoed in

the blossoms, lanterns and obis worn around the figure’s waist. The hazy effect of this print also

seems to have more of a romanticized effect.

Again, between these two prints, Mount Fuji is more prominent in Hokusai’s print than

in Hiroshige’s print. Both also feature patrons of the teahouse, viewing the mountain, but

Hiroshige’s figures are more detailed than Hokusai’s. Hokusai’s figures provides the viewer with

a visual clue (the women openly point to Mount Fuji as if to give it more attention), where as

Hiroshige’s figures are more subtle, using their gaze and body language to highlight the

mountain in the background.

These six collective prints represent a broad spectrum of Japanese society. While both

borrow Mount Fuji as a recurring theme, the landscapes highlight everyday life in Edo Japan.

Peasant life is the most represented, as they are tied more so to the land than merchants,

scholars, and those of the courts, and would therefore be more identifiable to the “everyman”

buyers.


JAPON RÊVÉ: INFLUENCE ON WESTERN ARTISTS

A large group of works by European and American artists of the Impressionist and Post-

Impressionist eras who were influenced by the Japanese print includes prints and drawings by

Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent van Gogh, and

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, and some even traveled to Japan to learn more about the

woodblock process (Breuer). These artists, exposed to prints via the Exposition Universelle of

1867,2 collected Japanese prints and often produced their own graphic work that, in composition,

color, and imagery borrowed directly from the Japanese aesthetic. “Peasant life” prints were also

very popular to Western tourists to be given as gifts, to show what Japan was “really like” to

those back home.

French artist Henri Rivière was directly influenced by Hokusai and Hiroshige, as

evidenced in his own print series “Thirty-Six Views of the Eiffel Tower” (1902). The man-made

Eiffel Tower in Paris has replaced Mount Fuji, but the aesthetic and visual structure is the same.

2 Items sent to Paris from Japan for the Exposition were wrapped in “discarded” prints used as packaging material, and the artists in Paris

became increasingly interested in the prints rather than the porcelain ware or silk screens. (Milford)


Figure 6: On the left is Hokusai's Tōto Asakusa honganji (Asakusa Hongan-ji temple in the Eastern capital, 1823) and on the right is Rivière’s De Notre Dame (1902). Both prints feature a religious structure in the foreground, and the subject matter of the series (Mount Fuji and Eiffel Tower) are in the background. The major difference between these two prints is perspective and color composition.

Dutch artist Van Gogh had a relationship with Japanese prints both as an artist and as a

surveyor of Japanese culture. Like most of his contemporaries, Van Gogh became interested in

Japanese aesthetics and culture through the Ukiyo-e prints, and as such, projected a dreamed

Japan – a japon rêvé – about the country, which had previously been seen as a rather exotic and

foreign nation (Walker). Japan’s “closed door” policies made her exceptionally mysterious, and

once Westerners had finally gained access to her, the aesthetic of Japanese prints heightened this

“beautiful mystery.”


Figure 7: On the left is Hiroshige’s print Tōto ichikokubashi (Ichikoku Bridge in the Eastern Capital, 1858) and on the right is Van Gogh’s oil painting De Brug in de Regen (The Bridge in the Rain, 1887). Van Gogh clearly is influenced by Hiroshige’s print – even going so far as to mimic the captions and “publisher’s seals” along the border of the painting, but the biggest difference between the two pieces is the medium. Van Gogh’s brush strokes give the scene a hazy effect, whereas Hiroshige’s use of color gradient is what gives his print a softer finish.

Both Hokusai’s and Hiroshige’s “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” helped to define the

landscape genre in Japanese Ukiyo-e prints. However, their individual styles differ greatly:

Hokusai has a penchant for bold colors and his lines are very defined, bold, and confident.

Compared to Hokusai, Hiroshige’s style is much softer in terms of lines and muted color,3 which

may be attributed to Hiroshige’s confidence in his artistic talent – however, by the second set of

3 Author’s Note: Though that may be attributed to how the prints reviewed were stored and have aged.


his “Thirty-Six Views” released in 1858, the prints are more refined in terms of sophistication

and technique.

Furthermore, another major difference between these two artists is their use of Mount

Fuji in their prints. Hokusai’s prints prominently feature Mount Fuji as the subject, despite it

always being in the background. He uses different techniques to highlight the mountain, such as

by using the great wave to frame the mountain, or even using visual clues like the figures from

the teahouse pointing at the peak in the distance. And his use of color is deliberate – he had a

penchant for blue inks, and often used the color to make an object in the print stand out – a

building, the sky, or even the mountain itself. Hiroshige’s prints tend to use Mount Fuji as

grounding for the scene, almost as if to emphasize the fact that the scene is really set in Japan.

Hiroshige prints tend to be more romanticized in scene and color, whereas Hokusai’s are sharper

and more realistic in scene. Hiroshige also features people more so in his prints – especially in

the second series from 1858 – and experiments more with textiles, colors and orientation of the

prints themselves.

Between the two artists, both print series feature peasant life. Unlike other artists

(Suzuki Harunobu and Kitagawa Utamaro) popular during the time – and even their own series

with different publishers or at different times in their careers – they look at the real world, rather


than the idealism of the “floating world” inspired by prints of court figures (like the Tale of

Genji prints), beautiful courtesans, fantastic kabuki actors, or even the more erotic shunga prints.

The landscapes reflect the land of Japan, but also the people who work it and live on it. The

impressive symbol of Mount Fuji reiterates the importance of the land and strength of the

people.

Figure 8: (LEFT) Sanka hakū (Rainstorm Beneath the Summit), Hokusai (1823). (RIGHT) Musashi koganei (Koganei in Musashi Province), Hiroshige (1858). In Hokusai’s print, there is no doubt that Mount Fuji is the subject, whereas in Hiroshige’s print, the scene could be set nearly anywhere, but the major clue that that it is set in Japan is through Mount Fuji, which is partially obscured by a blossoming tree.

When Hokusai and Hiroshige’s popularity extended into the Western world, their prints

were a visual representation of “Japan,” and westerners were eager to learn more about this

exotic and mysterious country. With the arrival of Commodore Perry in the 1850s and the end


of Japan’s sakoku (“isolationist”) policies, the West was learning more and more about Japan.

Tourists brought prints back with them, and artists like Rivière and Van Gogh began studying

their designs. Ultimately, the “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” was an opportunity to educate

the West about Japan while re-affirming its own Japanese identity.


Works Cited

Breuer, Karin. “Japanesque: The Japanese Print in the Era of Impressionism.” ARTH 186:

Japanese Painting and Prints. Mills College, Oakland. 5 Apr. 2011. Lecture.

Guth, Christine. “Edo Artists.” Art of Edo Japan: The Artist and the City 1615-1868. New

Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1996. 89-126. Print.

Milford, Mary-Ann. “Ukiyo-e: Woodblock Prints of the Floating World.” ARTH 186: Japanese

Painting and Prints. Mills College, Oakland. 29 Mar. 2011. Lecture.

Morton, W. Scott, and J. Kenneth. Olenik. Japan: Its History and Culture. 4th ed. New York:

McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.

Munsterberg, Hugo. “Hiroshige, Ando (1797-1858).” Encyclopedia of World

Biography (1998). Gale Biography In Context. Web. 25 Mar. 2011.

<http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?display

GroupName=Reference&prodId=BIC1&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documen

tId=GALE|A148463475&mode=view>.

Munsterberg, Hugo. “Hokusai, Katsushika (1760-1849).” Encyclopedia of World

Biography (1998). Gale Biography In Context. Web. 25 Mar. 2011.

<http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?display


GroupName=Reference&prodId=BIC1&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documen

tId=GALE|A148463502&mode=view>.

Smith, Henry D. II (1988). Hokusai: One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji. George Braziller, Inc.,

Publishers, New York.

Walker, Janet A. “Van Gogh, Collector of “Japan.”” The Comparatist 32 (2008): 82-

115. ProQuest International Academic Research Library. Web. 25 Mar. 2011.

<http://proquest.umi.com/pqdlink?Ver=1&Exp=03-27-

2016&FMT=7&DID=1527216811&RQT=309&cfc=1>.

Works Consulted

Gordon, Andrew. “The Intellectual World of Late Tokugawa.” A Modern History of Japan: From

Tokugawa Times to the Present. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.

Mason, Penelope E., and Donald Dinwiddie. “Pax Tokugawa: Closed Borders, Official

Orthodoxy, and the Inexorable Rise of Popular Culture in the Edo Period.” History of

Japanese Art. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. Print.

Varley, Paul. Japanese Culture. 4th ed. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i, 2000. Print.


Images Used

Gourvennec, Yann André. "Les 36 Vues De La Tour Eiffel D'Henri Rivière (1902) - L'anti-musée

- Yann Gourvennec." Aquarelle, Aquarelles De Paris. L'anti-musée, 2006. Web. 14 Apr.

2011. <http://antimuseum.online.fr/peintures/riviere/index.html>.

Van Gogh Museum. “De Brug in De Regen (naar Hiroshige).” Permanent Collection -

Landscapes. Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2005. Web. 14 Apr. 2011.

<http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=3713>.

Wikimedia. “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Hiroshige).” Wikipedia. 7 Oct. 2010. Web. 25 Mar.

2011.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-six_Views_of_Mount_Fuji_(Hiroshige)>.

Wikimedia. “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.” Wikipedia. 23 Jan. 2011. Web. 25 Mar. 2011.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-six_Views_of_Mount_Fuji>.

hokusai & hiroshige: the thirty-six views of mount fuji from two different perspectives

Documents