In the Tōtōmi Mountains (Tōtōmi san-chū)

Catalog note / 解説

The print is one of Hokusai’s most extraordinary designs; in it, he employs the boldest geometry of his compositional devices. A huge piece of lumber is propped diagonally on two pairs of triangular supports of different heights. Mount Fuji, framed by the taller support, is seen entwined by a curling cloud. Two lumbermen saw boards from the timber, one standing on top and the other beneath it. Another man repairs the blade of a saw, while a woman carrying her baby on her back talks to him. A young boy warms himself in front of a fire from which a gigantic plume of smoke, echoing the shape of the cloud around Fuji, trails into the sky. A combination of triangles dominates the composition. Th…