The Back of Mount Fuji from the Minobu River

Catalog note / 解説

Hokusai preferred to show Mount Fuji majestically in the distance, or in close-ups with its long flanks. This print is unusual in that Fuji competes with other mountains on each side. The brown mountains on its right and the green one on its left look taller because they are closer to the viewers in actual space; Fuji reveals only its now-covered summit between their fantastic shapes. The print well expresses the feeling of a remote mountainous region. Below the thick clouds, the Minobu River surges in rolling waves and breakers, indicated by numerous dark-blue dots. On the pinkish-brown colored highway, a man leads two horses to the right, while two bearers carrying a palanquin come from t…