Utagawa Hiroshige, 'The Sea at Satta,
Suruga Province' (Suruga Satta
kaijō), a colour woodblock
print
Japan
Edo period,
published AD 1859
This print is one of the series
'Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji'
(Fuji sanjūrokkei),
Hiroshige's last major series in the upright format typical
of his later landscape prints. The design is reminiscent of
Hokusai's 'Under the Wave, off Kanagawa' of
about 1830, and is almost certainly Hiroshige's tribute to
the earlier master. Hiroshige died on the 6th day of the 9th month
of 1858, before the series was published. He may have been a victim
of the cholera epidemic which swept through Edo that summer and
autumn.
At Satta the old
Tōkaidō
Highway followed the rocky coastline, which
was often washed by stormy seas. Pine trees cling to the steep
cliff and, as in Hokusai's print, the wild waves contrast
with the serene form of Mount Fuji in the background. Hiroshige has
added a flock of plovers which give the impression of flecks of
foam tossed up by the waves.
L. Smith, V. Harris and T. Clark, Japanese art: masterpieces in (London, The British Museum Press, 1990)
T. Clark, 100 views of Mount Fuji (London, The British Museum Press, 2001)