- Museum number
- 1937,0710,0.149
- Title
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Object: Tokaido Kanaya no Fuji 東海道金谷ノ不二 (Fuji from Kanaya on the Tokaido Highway)
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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. View from Kanaya eastward across Oi River to Mt. Fuji. Freight and palanquins ferried on rafts by teams of loin-clothed 'river-crossers'; individual travellers carried on bare shoulders, their legs outstretched above the water. 1 of 3 impressions. Inscribed, signed, sealed and marked.
- Production date
- 1830-1833
- Dimensions
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Height: 25.50 centimetres
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Width: 37.50 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Clark 2001
Freight and palanquins are ferried on rafts by teams of loin-clothed 'river-crossers' ('kawa-goshi ninsoku') while individual travellers are carried on their bare shoulders, legs held up forwards out of the water. There was no ferry or bridge over the fast-flowing Oi River between the post-stations of Kanaya and Shimada, roughly halfway along the Tokaido, so the entire traffic of this most-frequented highway had to be transported across in this manner. Here Hokusai uses a close-packed, repeating pattern of swell and foam to suggest a treacherous current, the rolling motion echoed by the shapes of the ?dykes on the far bank. Amusingly, all the faces of the individual travellers in the foreground are hidden by round hats - no doubt they are praying for dear life - and just the calm features of a couple of the river-crossers are visible in the centre of the composition. The different head-gear of the men carrying the green load on the left have also been painstakingly differentiated. Curiously, almost every load and bundle is decorated with advertising marks of the publisher Nishimuraya.
There are two more impressions of the design in the British Museum collection, one with red seals in the bottom right corner (1906.12-20.0536) and one without (1937.7-10.0150). The present impression has particularly strong and vibrant yellow and green.
References:
'Ukiyo-e taikei, vol. 13: Fugaku sanju-rokkei', Tokyo, Shueisha, 1975 (text by Kobayashi Tadashi), no. 45.
'Meihin soroimono ukiyo-e, vol. 8: Hokusai I', Tokyo, Gyosei, 1991 (text by Nagata Seiji), no. 37.
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. 50.
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Clark 2017
Kanaya is a village situated on the east shore of the broad, shallow Ōi river where it interrupted the Tōkaidō highway. Travellers hired porters to carry them and their luggage and goods across – either seated directly on the porters’ shoulders, or by having their palanquins transported on rafts. Hokusai uses a close-packed, repeating pattern of swell and foam to suggest a treacherous current. The large box, left, and two of the packs are marked with the emblem of the publisher, Nishimuraya.
- 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 6 Oct - 19 Nov, Osaka, Abeno Harukas Art Museum
2022 16 Apr-12 Jun, Tokyo, Suntory Museum of Art, Hokusai from the British Museum
2023–2024 Oct-Jan, Santa Ana, CA, USA, Bowers Museum, Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave
- Acquisition date
- 1937
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1937,0710,0.149