One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji

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Katsushika Hokusai

Nonfiction

Sep 4, 2018

An exercise in contemplative engagement, One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji is a picture book of profound eloquence, earning a perhaps unexpected place amid the text-drenched volumes that surround it here. Most famous as the creator of the image Under the Wave off Kanagawa, also known as The Great Wave, Katsushika Hokusai lived a long life fueled with protean energy, opportunistic alertness, and boundless artistry. When he began One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji in 1832, at the age of seventy-three, he had taken to signing his works “Old Man Mad About Drawing.” Hokusai’s study of Fuji’s enduring and implacable presence through the ephemeral activity of everyday living is a form of prayer, a book-bound pilgrimage across the expanses of time, space, and human busyness that the venerated volcano watches over and somehow blesses. The book is a strange, mysterious story as well; turning the pages from one image to the next, we are treated to a visionary, detailed, and often witty visual monologue on life, death, man, and nature by a wise, irreverent old genius whose extraordinary attention is a source of both inspiration and solace.

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James O'Doherty

Feb 23, 2019

I love the way he develops such a complex visual narrative from a simple premise

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