Book of woodblock prints from 1834. “Fuji at Sea” (Kaijô no Fuji) by Katsushika Hokusai, part of his famous series, “One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji” (Fugaku Hyakkei)

Posted on July 9th, 2026 under Japan. Tags: hokusai, mt. fuji, museums, Tokyo, ukiyo-e. Comments Off on The Ukiyo-e Collection of the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum

Takahashi Rikio in the Portland Art Museum (February 2019)

Posted on July 20th, 2023 under Japan, Oregon. Tags: hokusai, mt. fuji, museums, Nikon 24-120mm f/4 VR G lens, Nikon D750, portland, ukiyo-e. Comments Off on 高橋力雄 – Mount Fuji Time 25

“Geisha with Books” Hokusai

Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia)

Posted on January 31st, 2020 under Japan, Saint Petersburg. Tags: AF-S DX NIKKOR 16-80mm f/2.8-4E ED VR DX lens, hermitage, hokusai, museums, Nikon D500, ukiyo-e. Comments Off on Geisha with Books

河内成幸 – 翔べ北斎 (XIIX)

For the last few weeks in the art gallery in the Stevenson Union Building on the Southern Oregon University campus, there has been an exhibit featuring several Japanese artists. Today’s photo is of one of the works.

Japanese love to use words in a way that yields double meanings. The English rendition of this woodcut print clearly has a double meaning, but I don’t think 翔べ北斎 has the “knockoff” meaning that “take off” has in English. Native Japanese speakers, please correct me if I’m wrong.

More on the original Hokusai can be found in my earlier entry.

Posted on March 17th, 2013 under Japan, Oregon. Tags: hokusai, Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, Nikon D600. Comments Off on Seiko Kawachi’s “Take Off Hokusai XIIX”

While walking to my daughter’s soccer game in a shitamachi area of Tokyo called Fukagawa (deep river) I came across this marker of one of Hokusai’s famous scenes from his series “36 Views of Mt. Fuji.” The title of the ukiyo-e is “Under the 10,000 year bridge over Fukagawa.” The bridge is no longer there so I’m guessing its existence ended up being only a few hundred years at most.

Turning the corner a bit and looking down the Sumidagawa (a much larger and much deeper river than the Fukagawa–it’s the river in the background of the above which the Fukagawa is draining into) yielded the following modern view.

No chance of seeing Mount Fuji from here anymore with most of the buildings being over 10 stories high. Perhaps if you were on top of one of the buildings you may occasionally have a glimpse. The blue bridge in this image is the Kiyosu-bashi (清洲橋). You can still see fishermen (the guy in the bottom of the photo has three fishing poles in the water) though. Some things don’t change.

Posted on May 23rd, 2011 under Japan. Tags: hokusai, mt. fuji, shitamachi, sumida, Tokyo, ukiyo-e. Comments Off on The meeting of the Fukagawa (深川) and the Sumidagawa (隅田川) – past and present