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)