Artist: Katsushika Hokusai

Title: Dawn at Isawa in Kai Province

Date: c. 1830-1834

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Source: Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description:

Isawa is a small town on the Fuefuki River just east of Köfu (current Yamanashi Prefecture). In the Edo period, Isawa was a station on the Köshü Road, a major highway leading from Edo to Köshü and Lake Suwa. Hokusai depicts the town with many inns and restaurants for travelers, some of whom are already on the road before the sunrise, while others in front of the inns are getting ready to leave. With the key block printed in black, this is one of the prints showing the “back” of Mount Fuji (ura-Fuji ) that are thought to have been made as supplementary images to the main thirty-six views. As in many prints from this series, Hokusai implies a comparison between Mount Fuji and the immortal island of Mount Hörai from Chinese mythology by showing the volcano from a distance, separated from the human world by dense mist, with the promise of the sunrise in the red-tinged sky around it. “Hokusai’s Summit: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” (09/24/2009-01/06/2010) ******************************

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