- Museum number
- 1927,0613,0.13
- Title
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Object: Koishikawa yuki no ashita 礫川雪ノ旦 (Morning after a Snowfall at Koishikawa)
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Series: Fugaku sanjurokkei 冨嶽三十六景 (Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji)
- Description
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Colour woodblock oban print. Morning after heavy fall of snow; customers gathering at window of restaurant for elegant Fuji-viewing party; waitress bringing in large tray of food; woman pointing towards three birds in the sky; neighbouring roofs and Mt Fuji in distance covered with snow. 1 of 3 impressions in collection. Inscribed, signed and sealed.
- Production date
- 1832 (probably 1832 (Keyes and Morse 2015))
- Dimensions
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Height: 25 centimetres
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Width: 37.20 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Clark 2001
On a crisp, clear morning after a heavy fall of snow, customers gather at the window of a restaurant for an elegant Fuji-viewing party, as a waitress brings in a large tray of food. One woman enlivens the otherwise still scene with excited gestures and following her pointing finger we notice three birds circling the emptied sky. Triangular eaves of the neighbouring roofs might be taken for foothills of Fuji in their disguise of snow and the placement of the restaurant building higher than the mountain emphasizes its superior vantage.
Koishikawa was the name given to a large swathe of Edo to the north and west of the castle, present-day Bunkyo-ku, a relatively hilly part of the city with many samurai residences, temples and shrines. This design may depict the bustling area in front of Denzu-in [Dentsu-in], a prominent temple of the Pure Land sect (UT 1975, no. 24): the view would thus be looking south-west across the Edo River.
This is an unusual (possibly early) printing of the design which fills the entire sky with pale blue, rather than the more normal un-inked sky between the gradated bands of intense Berlin blue at top and bottom (an impression with the un-inked sky, in inferior condition, is also in the British Museum collection, 1907.3-22.09). Here the dark blue has been wiped so as to climb almost to the summit of Fuji on the right side. The all-blue sky serves to emphasize the whiteness of the snow.
References:
'Ukiyo-e taikei, vol. 13: Fugaku sanju-rokkei', Tokyo, Shueisha, 1975 (text by Kobayashi Tadashi), no. 24.
'Meihin soroimono ukiyo-e, vol. 8: Hokusai I', Tokyo, Gyosei, 1991 (text by Nagata Seiji), no. 11.
Julia White, 'et al.', 'Hokusai and Hiroshige: Great Japanese Prints from the James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts', Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1998 (commentaries by Yoko Woodson), no. 29.
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Clark 2017
After heavy overnight snow, an elegant party has assembled in a room with a fine vantage in the crisp early morning sunlight over snow-clad roofs and the Edo river towards Mt Fuji. One woman seems to point to three birds circling in the sky. Koishikawa, north of Suidōbashi, was an area of wealthy samurai residences and large religious holdings in the 1830s. Hokusai’s view is thought to show the bustling neighbourhood in front of Denzūin temple.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
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Exhibited:
2001, 11 May-29 Jul, BM Japanese Galleries, '100 Views of Mount Fuji'
2017 8 July - 13 Aug, London, BM, G35, Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave
2017 6 Oct - 19 Nov, Osaka, Abeno Harukas Art Museum
2022 16 Apr-12 Jun, Tokyo, Suntory Museum of Art, Hokusai from the British Museum
- Acquisition date
- 1927
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1927,0613,0.13
