Ushibori in Hitachi Province (Jōshū Ushibori), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)
Katsushika Hokusai Japanese
Not on view
Mount Fuji appears in all kinds of scenes in the thirty-six prints of the series. In a sense, Hokusai offers a world view in which the sacred mountain is omnipresent.
Here we find the bleak life of people who make their living on the water. Ushibori in the province of Hitachi (present-day Ibaragi Prefecture) is a lakeside district east of Edo. Although Ushibori is quite far from Mount Fuji—perhaps the easternmost region from which the mountain is still visible—Hokusai reassures his viewer that here, too, people live with the great mountain.
In this composition, Hokusai literally cuts the boat off in the center, by using the rocky hillock in the lower right corner to crop the unseen portion of the boat. This cropping technique gives a sense of immediacy to the picture, and the scene is further enlivened by the rush of two herons to the left, Mount Fuji stands etched solemnly in relief in the background.
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