KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI: POEM BY YAMABE NO AKAHITO

拍品描述

KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI: POEM BY YAMABE NO AKAHITO By Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), signed saki no Hokusai Japan, c. 1835–1836 Color woodblock print on paper. Horizontal oban. Signed saki no Hokusai, censor’s seal kiwame; publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudo). Title Poem by Yamabe no Akahito, number 4 from the series Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki (The Hundred Poems [By the Hundred Poets] as Told by the Nurse). Well-heeled travelers and their servants climb up a steep path along a cliff edge, beneath which choppy waters break against rocks. While precarious, the route offers an exceptional view of Mount Fuji, its silvery hue dramatically standing out against the blue water in the middle-ground and the band of red sky on the horizon. Inscriptions: The poem in this print was written by Yamabe no Akahito (active 724-36) and describes the poet’s view of snowy Mount Fuji on his journey from the beach of Tago: 山辺赤人　田子の浦に　うち出でてみれば　白妙の　富士の高根に　雪は降つつ ‘Tago no ura ni / Uchi-idete mireba / Shiro-tahe no / Fuji no taka-ne ni / Yuki ha furitsutsu’ [As I set out on / The beach of Tago, and look / I see the snow constantly falling / On the high peak of Fuji / White as mulberry cloth.] Image SIZE 38.6 x 25.9 cm, SIZE incl. frame 56 x 44 cm For his last single sheet series of woodblock prints, One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki), Katshushika Hokusai looked to an anthology of well-known poems, entitled Hyakunin Isshu (A Hundred Poems by a Hundred Poets), as his source. These poems, based on love and melancholy, were assembled by the thirteenth-century poet Fujiawara no Teika. Hokusai chose to visually recount the poems from the perspective of a fictional elderly nurse. Together with sixty-four preparatory drawings, twenty-seven published prints are known, each exhibiting bold color and including a cartouche enclosing the relevant verse. The series was commissioned by the publisher Nishimura Yohachi and his firm Eijudo successfully issued five prints before closing down; the additional twenty-two prints were then published by Iseya Sanjiro’s firm Iseri, with the original Eijudo seal continuing to be employed. Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as the creator of the woodblock print series ‘Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji’ which includes the iconic and internationally recognized print ‘The Great Wave off Kanagawa’, created during the 1820s. Hokusai created the ‘Thirty-Six Views’ both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. It was this series, specifically ‘The Great Wave’ print and ‘Fuji in Clear Weather’, that secured Hokusai’s fame both within Japan and overseas. While Hokusai’s work prior to this series is certainly important, it was not until this series that he gained broad recognition and left a lasting impact on the art world. Auction comparison: Compare a closely related print, with similar seals, at Sotheby’s, Private Collection of Fine Japanese Prints, 28 September-8 October 2020, London, lot 26 (sold for GBP 11,340 or approx. EUR 17,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).

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