Tago Bay near Ejiri on the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō Ejiri Tago no ura ryakuzu), from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei), ca. 1830-31

Color woodblock print

10 1/16 x 14 3/4 inches (25.6 x 37.5 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White Collection, 1967

1967-30-179

In Hokusai’s most famous series, Mount Fuji is the starting point for imaginative compositions and endless variations on a theme. Beneath the famed peak, fishermen pull their nets from Tago Bay, a celebrated famous place associated with Mount Fuji’s snow-covered peak since the eighth century.
The image of the mountain dappled with snow, a frequent image in Japanese poetry and painting, is connected visually to mundane contemporary life, its sloping shape echoed in the forms of the fishing boats.

Quintana Heathman