Page 317 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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I7i wood itself, which, along with the tible mountain range on the left, and
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) visible traces of the inker's hand, substituting puffy, low-lying cumulus
Sudden Wind on a Clear Day, from imparts a range of textures that vary clouds — Hokusai could suggest Fuji
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji in each impression. in the thick air of a summer thunder-
storm at sunset. The artist might
c. 1830-1832 In the cartouche below the series have intended the two prints to repre-
Color woodblock print title Hokusai labeled the print Gai/u
Approx. 26 x 38 (ioV4 x 15) kaisei, roughly meaning "sudden sent a contrast of Fuji seen from
(the present example) with
the south
Tokyo National Museum wind, clear day," although the print is a view from the north (ura Fuji).
more commonly known by its nick-
• Katsushika Hokusai's love of trun- name, "The Red Fuji." The ice-bearing, There are precedents for views of
cated triangles, as seen in Asakusa high-floating cirrus clouds suggest a Fuji in the four seasons, and even for
Honganji (cat. 172), here finds its crisp day in autumn, and during the one hundred views, but Hokusai was
purest form in the daringly simple transition from summer to autumn the first to infuse sequences with
sweep of Mount Fuji's classic outline. the mountain could appear this red times of day and weather conditions.
It is difficult to believe that this suc- at dawn. The minimal lingering snow He accomplished the effects, miracu-
cessful design required only four on Fuji's crater is another indicator lously, by making slight modifications
blocks: one for the black, a second for of the season. to a basic design. In these remark-
the graded red brown shoulder of Hokusai must have been especially able prints, Hokusai portrayed the
the mountain, a third for the unevenly pleased with this design, because he magnificent mountain as a living
wiped blue sky, and a fourth for repeated it almost verbatim for the divinity. MT
the green of the slope. Essential to the next print in the series, White Clouds
aesthetic effect is the grain of the
below the Mountain. By making only
slight changes — narrowing the peak,
adding a jagged flash of lightning in
the lower right and a barely percep-