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Country Scenes and Mount Fuji

Katsushika Hokusai

Country Scenes and Mount Fuji exhibition

Country Scenes and Mount Fuji

High-resolution facsimiles

Material
printed, sprinkled gold on washi paper
Period of creation
Tsuzuri Project Stage 12 2018–2019
Recipient
The Sumida Hokusai Museum(Sumida Ward)

Original

Artist
Katsushika Hokusai
Historical era
Edo (19th century)
Material
ink, color, and sprinkled gold on paper
Medium
Pair of six-fold screens
Size
Each screen H150.6 × W351.0 cm
Collection
Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art

Description

This is a pair of six-panel folding screens depicting rural areas with a faraway view of the sacred mountain Mt. Fuji. You can observe men rethatching their roofs, women beating cloth on wooden blocks, a group of lion-dancers, and other people engaged in a wide variety of lifestyles in the series of compositions in the two rows of panels. Hokusai produced numerous works, both in woodblock printing and original painting, but there are few of his folding pictures. This is a very important work, being arguably the only pair of six-panel folding screens produced by Hokusai with his own hands. Because of its splendor, with its rich variety of colors and gold pigments, this work is considered to have been produced upon request around 1830, when The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji was published. It is also precious in that it teaches us how Hokusai was related to the upper class of the time. In 1902, Charles Lang Freer purchased these rows of panels separately from the Oriental art historian Ernest Fenollosa and Fenollosa‘s ex-wife.

How the Works Are Created

How the Works Are Created

This section introduces the production process of high resolution facsimiles by combining Canon’s latest imaging technology and the authentic craftsmanship of Kyoto in the Tsuzuri Project.

About the Tsuzuri Project

About the Tsuzuri Project

This section shares the significance and passion behind the Tsuzuri Project and how we utilize the high resolution facsimiles of precious cultural assets, which are designated as national treasures and important cultural assets, and Japanese artworks that have left Japan.