Skip Navigation

Lake Suwa in Shinano Province, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

Katsushika Hokusai

Asian Art

MEDIUM Color woodblock print on paper
  • Place Made: Japan
  • DATES ca. 1830–1831
    PERIOD Edo period
    DIMENSIONS Image: 10 1/4 x 15 1/16 in. (26 x 38.2 cm)  (show scale)
    MARKINGS Censor's seal: kiwame (極). Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudō).
    SIGNATURE Saki no Hokusai Iitsu hitsu (前北斎為一筆)
    COLLECTIONS Asian Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 42.79
    CREDIT LINE Gift of Frederic B. Pratt
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION A view across a lake toward Mt. Fuji, here printed in all blue inks (a type of print called aizuri-e or "blue picture"). This image exists in full color elsewhere. In his 1991 catalogue on Hokusai, Matthi Forrer writes of this print, " Beneath two pines, a thatched hut stands on a promontory above Lake Suwa in present-day Nagano Prefecture. Mount Fuji can be seen in the distance behind Takashima Castle, which belonged to the Suwa daimyo, or feudal lord. Except for some mist on the horizon, it is a clear day with a sheer blue sky. On the lake, one of the fisherman in the boat is hauling in a large net. Here Hokusai has created a sense of depth in what is otherwise a traditional Japanese landscape by placing the pine trees and hut conspicuoulsy in the foreground. Other than this, apart from printing some areas in a darker tone, little has been done to suggest distance. Only three shades of blue have, in fact, been used. As in all later impressions of the designs originally issued in an aizuri-e edition, various colours were subsequently introduced. Mount Fuji and the trees in the foreground and on the more distant hills were printed in shades of green, with yellow used for the timber walls of the hut and for the branches of some trees, while the sky was printed in blue at the top and in an orange-red below, thus setting the scene in the early evening. In still later impressions the blue outlines were replaced by a black line-block." Definitive catalogue no. : Vignier-Inada 251 Condition: excellent Paper: Japan Remarks: very rare with blue. Editor: Yeijudo
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese, 1760–1849). Lake Suwa in Shinano Province, from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, ca. 1830–1831. Color woodblock print on paper, Image: 10 1/4 x 15 1/16 in. (26 x 38.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Frederic B. Pratt, 42.79 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 42.79_PS4.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 42.79_PS4.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2013
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT No known copyright restrictions
    This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.