Focus on One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji and explain the Publication.
The first two volumes have embossed pink covers and feature what is known as a "falcon-feather" title slip. They were published by Nishimuraya Yohachi, who had issued the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, and Nishimura Sukezo in 1834 and 1835. The blocks were cut by the workshop of Egawa Tomekichi and are praised for their extremely high quality. Eirakuya Toshiro of Nagoya, publisher of the Hokusai Manga, issued the third volume, which is not as well printed as the first two. The date of publication is not known with certainty; the third is conventionally dated to 1849, though some prefer a date several years earlier.The first volume is inscribed by the artist: "From the brush of the former Hokusai Iitsu changing name to Manji, the old man crazy about painting" (Saki no Hokusai Iitsu aratame Gakyo Rojin Manji hitsu). The book is the first major project of his to use the name "Manji" which he wrote with a character meaning ten thousand, a symbol of longevity. In a later pressing, at the age of seventy-five, he added his famous autobiographical colophon: From the age of six I had a penchant for copying the form of things, and from about fifty, my pictures were frequently published; but until the age of seventy, nothing that I drew was worthy of notice. At seventy-three years, I was somewhat able to fathom the growth of plants and trees, and the structure of birds, animals, insects, and fish. Thus, when I reach eighty years, I hope to have made increasing progress, and at ninety to see further into the underlying principles of things, so that at one hundred years I will have achieved a divine state in my art, and at one hundred and then, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive. Those of you who live long enough, bear witness that these words of mine prove not false.
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji Hokusai Mount Fuji Egawa Tomekichi colophon Nagoya Hokusai Manga Nishimuraya Yohachi