A copy of Hokusai’s Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji has come up for auction at Freeman’s Auction in Philadelphia.
This is a Japanese Woodblock print book (which is a sub-category of what is referred to a ‘Ehon’, picture books). The prints are designed by an artist (in this case, the famous Hokusai) and then carved by professional carvers (and then printed by professional printers). This book series was almost certainly created as a result of the popularity of Hokusai’s famous 36 Views of Mount Fuji (the one with the great wave).
Hokusai first started to publish the 36 Views print series in 1830. It was incredibly successful – in part due to his portrayal of the subject matter – but also because it was one of the first prints to make extensive use of Prussian Blue (a new ink import from China and Europe).
While this particular ehon doesn’t have any color, it certainly does have the fascinating charisma and design that is ever-present in Hokusai’s work.
Edo-era ehon were created as low-cost ways for people to get complete collections of their favorite prints. Since the prints were only in black it made it very easy to mass produce. (Most color prints were a mixture of black line and color prints – oftentimes publishers would do print runs of just the black line prints as a way to sell cheaper prints more efficiently.)
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It should be noted this is the rare first edition of the “Fugaku Hakkei” aka Falcon Feathers edition. Falcon Feather refers to the cartouch of the hashira (title slip) on the 1&2 vol., later editions just have the normal square linear cartoch.
The set sold for $5000++ which must be considered as a true bargain.
Normally a “2nd” state Edo period set (Nagoya published), usually w. dark blue or green covers would be very cheap at this price.
A Meiji period set, yellow covers usually retails between $1500-5000, depending on condition and impression.
Anders Rikardson
Tokyo
“Fugaku Hakkei” should read “Fugaku Hyakkei”, sorry about the mistake.