36 Views of Mount Fuji, Inume Pass, Katsushika Hokusai, Japanese Print

The print Inume Pass in Kai Province was printed in ca. 1830-32 during the Edo period of between 1615 and 1868. The print was produced on a Polychrome woodblock print; ink and color on paper.

The print represents the post-town on the pass along the Koshu Highway, between today’s Uenohara-shi and Otsuki-shi Yamanashi prefecture. The Ukiyo-e artwork print depicts travellers walking along Mount Fuji’s light vegetation during early summer.

The unique relationship between humans and the environment is artistically portrayed as small persons walk the hill as the massive Mount Fuji is seemingly towering over them. The clouds printed behind the travellers shows that there is a distance between people and the huge Mount Fuji. The impressive woodblock artwork produces an atmosphere where time and breeze seem to flow in a slow motion. Since he started painting at a tender age, together with his father Nakajima Ise who was a mirror-maker, Hokusai believed that if he could have lived to the age of 140 years-old, his brush strokes could have had the magic to bring his images to life.

Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景 Fugaku Sanjūroku-kei, c. 1831) which includes the internationally iconic print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

Hokusai created the "Thirty-Six Views" both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. It was this series, specifically The Great Wave print and Fine Wind, Clear Morning, that secured Hokusai’s fame both in Japan and overseas. As historian Richard Lane concludes, "Indeed, if there is one work that made Hokusai's name, both in Japan and abroad, it must be this monumental print-series". While Hokusai's work prior to this series is certainly important, it was not until this series that he gained broad recognition.

All prints are made using archival art stocks and UV pigment inks to give up to 200 years life. Choose from unframed, framed and mounted and canvas panel options.