Hokusai | Lower Meguro (Shimo-Meguro), Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
葛飾北齋 Katsushika Hokusai（1760-1849）
富岳三十六景 下目黑
Lower Meguro (Shimo-Meguro), from the series of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
1830-32
木版画 | 横绘大判 | 25.2cm x 37.5cm
Woodblock-print | Oban yoko -e | 25.2cm x 37.5cm
早期的版次；颜色保存完好；污渍；轻微中间折痕
Early impression; good color; soiling; slight centerfold
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《富岳三十六景》，一个浮世绘历史上永远绕不开的名字。这一出版于1831至1834年的横版大判名所绘系列，是葛饰北斋晚年乃至一生的巅峰之作。全套共计46幅，由原计划出版的36幅，与后因市场热烈反响增推的10幅“里不二”组成。
下目黑，今属东京都目黑区东部，企业总部与时尚店铺鳞次栉比，充满着活力气息。但在江户时代，此地尚是一处以种植业为主的农耕村落。丘陵层叠，高低错落，一如北斋笔下的大浪般起伏。独特的地形优势，使得此地成了幕府将军与大名鹰猎的好所在。画面下方偏右部的梯田旁，两位鹰匠（猎鹰人）皆左臂架鹰，右手执鞭，沿小道游走，环视着周边地貌。一旁的男子弯腰蹲坐，正探头观瞧着这新奇的一幕。视线左移，茅屋与草垛构成了人工的丘陵。一名背着婴儿的农妇正侧身挡在孩子前方，似乎是想让他远离鹰匠与猎鹰。斜上方小路上，一位农夫戴笠荷锄，慢慢走向远方。
本作虽呈现着恬淡朴实的农家景观，却有着与《神奈川冲浪里》如出一辙的构图。为了不让观者忽视半隐于深蓝天际线内的富岳，北斋还别出心裁地在右上方绘制了一棵如升腾云霞般的苍松，颇具浪漫主义色彩。
In this fascinating design from Hokusai’s landmark “36 Views of Mount Fuji,” we see many of the elements that made this series famous, even beyond “The Great Wave of Kanazawa.” The composition is both playful and bold, while the multiple human vignettes unfolding within it – all set comfortably in nature -- engage our eyes and curiosity. And we learn about life in Edo.
Published from the 1820s into the early 1830s, “36 Views…” revolutionized and popularized the landscape genre; in Ukiyoe terms, it was a smash hit. Because of its success, an additional 10 prints were added, bringing the total to 46. This final batch had black key blocks, while the originals, such as this one, had lines of dark blue.
Shimomeguro – or “Lower Maguro” -- in the eastern part of Meguro in Tokyo, is today full of corporate headquarters and fashionable shops. It also has wonderful restaurants and cocktail bars. But in the Edo period it was still a farming village. Hokusai shows us how every extra inch of this hilly area was cultivated for farming. But it was also an area known for falcon hunting, and in the middle center, just to the right of Fuji, we can see falconers with their birds of prey and their whips. Above them, to the left, a farmer navigates a steep path among the rows of plantings. Note how the circle of his hat plays off the triangle of Fuji. This circle-triangle composition appears again and again in this series.
The hilliness of the area allowed only for fleeting glimpses of Fuji. Nonetheless, they were beloved – there was even a rest house called “Fuji View.” Today one can still glimpse the mountain from the top of Meguro’s hills, if the weather is just right.
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Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)
In the annals of Ukiyo-e, no design is more iconic than “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.”
This bold image of a gigantic, froth-tentacled wave enveloping both Mt. Fuji and crescent-shaped boats of huddled fishermen has burst out of the world of Japanese woodblock prints and into the mainstream of global culture. It appears on Swatch watches, in political ads, on record albums and yes, even on sexual devices. There are believed to be about 200 originals of them left on the planet. In March 2023, one sold in auction for $2.76 million, a record for Ukiyo-e. Meiji-era reprints can, absurdly, sell for as much as $5,000.
The fame of this undisputed masterpiece is a mixed blessing for lovers and collectors of Japanese woodblock prints. On the one hand, its notoriety brings attention to the form. But on the other it can take up all the oxygen in the room. New collectors chase it. But it can overshadow all the other arguably comparable masterworks by its creator – such as “Red Fuji” or “Rainstorm Beneath the Summit.”
And it can also overshadow its creator himself. And that would be a shame, for there are few characters more legendary, more prolific, more influential and more just all around interesting in the Ukiyo-e universe than Katsushika Hokusai.
Born in 1760 and living until 1849 – a long life in Edo times – he produced untold thousands of works, from intricate color prints to luxurious paintings to books upon books of drawings and sketches. His designs were boldly modern and instantly recognizable, in several cases deeply influencing Western art.
His voluminous sketchbooks are the clear forerunners of today’s manga comic books and Japanese animated movies. His lines were clever and precise. He was the subject of a major 2020 movie in Japan.
Alas, his personal life was a bit of a mess. Despite his fame, he often lived in squalor. Later in life, he referred to himself as “Old Man Mad About Drawing.”
Muneshige Narazaki, a scholar of Ukiyo-e, wrote:
Hokusai’s life spanned almost the whole of that golden age. His art progressed in gradual stages from the imitation of others to mature independence and the development of new forms, then went on to new heights while the form itself was lapsing into decadence, and finally survived to see itself become old-fashioned in its turn, and to be superseded.
He was born in Edo as Tokitaro Kawamura and was adopted by a mirror maker. Showing early promise, he studied with several Ukiyo-e greats, with varying levels of success. He’d changed his name repeatedly throughout his life. He began by doing designs for illustrated books.
His greatest series is undoubtably “36 Views of Mt. Fuji,” which was published by Yohachi from 1823 to 1832 and which includes “The Great Wave Off Kanazawa” as its centerpiece.
Many of the designs in this landmark series, which helped introduce the landscape genre to the thriving print marketplace, are exquisitely simple. It featured considerable use of Prussian Blue, just then introduced to Japan; the key blocks of the first 36 are in this pigment. I say “the first” because the series was so successful that 10 more were produced, and you can tell those designs because those key blocks are in black. So really, 46 Views of Mt. Fuji.
He followed up with three books of black-and-white only prints called “100 Views of Mount Fuji.” They are wonderful. Hokusai just couldn’t stop.
Until he did. Hokusai wanted to live to 100 years old but didn’t make it.
He had a daughter, Katsushika Oi, who worked as his assistant and turned out to be a talent in her own right. Some scholars have even attributed some of his works to her. And she had something in common with her more famous father: she was also the focus of a recent blockbuster movie in Japan.
Partial citation: Narazaki, Muneshige, Hokusai: Masterworks of Ukiyo-e (Kodansha; 1968); Marks, Andreas, Japanese Woodblock Prints, Artists, Publishers and Masterworks: 1680-1900 (Tuttle; 2010); Forrer, Matthi, Hokusai (Prestel; 2015)