Page 321 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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175 throughout eastern Japan. Oyama tionally by the preternaturally
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was only about eighteen ri (Japanese elongated sweep of Fuji to the left.
Nakahara in Sagami Province, from kilometers) from Edo and so was Hokusai clearly enjoyed playing with
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji frequently visited by residents of his triangles, even at the expense of
that city. compositional credibility. The ropes
c. 1830-1832 leading to the stone monument (seen
Color woodblock print The nexus of Hokusai's composition from the rear) repeat Fuji's conical
Approx. 26 x 38 (ioV4 x 15) is a plank bridge similar in construc-
Tokyo National Museum tion to the famous eight-fold bridge shape exactly, but stretching out
toward the right. Hokusai returns to
with irises depicted by Ogata Kenzan
• Hokusai depicts Mount Fuji in the (cat. 163). Crossing the bridge are a the triangle again in the lines of the
right,
roof at the bottom
thatch
which
background of a rural crossroads in peasant woman — hoe in hand, baby match both the shape of Fuji and the
Nakahara (near present-day Hira- on back, and lunch tray on head — intersecting angle of the two ropes. MT
tsuka). During the Tokugawa period followed by a foppish young man and
this was a popular destination for his servant. Below the bridge a fisher-
pilgrims on their way to the nearby man pokes around in his basket. The
Shugendó temple at Ôyama, consid- gaze of a servant bearing boxes slung
ered to be a sacred haunt where over a shoulder pole, and the glance
Buddhist deities and Shinto gods con- of a young man with a pilgrim's
verged. The Ôyama cult had chapters staff in his hand, further direct the
viewer's attention toward the woman.
This line of vision is echoed inten-