Title : Tsukuda Island in Musashi Province

Artist : Katsushika Hokusai

Date : c. 1830 - 1834

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Source : Honolulu Museum of Art
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Description : During Hokusai’s time, the island of Tsukuda was a fishing village lying near the mouth of the Sumida River. Hokusai views the island from a high position. Like any other fishing village, Tsukuda’s harbors are filled with rows of masts. Many different types of boats – fishing boats, cargo boats, and ferries – are being rowed to and from the island. Hokusai seems to take delight in the boats’ construction. He depicts their rising stem posts, gunwales, decks, thwarts, and rudder mechanisms in careful detail. The foremost boat, with its covered foredeck and a crewman hauling on a line, is masterfully foreshortened. Over the slightly curved horizon, snow-capped Mount Fuji rises near the center, and small masts of sailing boats appear at the left. The scene probably depicts sunset, not dawn, for Tsukuda Island is a deep shade of blue, which would convey the feeling of evening, despite the pink sky. The key-block was printed in blue. (The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, HOKUSAI AND HIROSHIGE – Great Japanese Prints from the James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts: The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1998 Page 66. Cat. 17) ************** Tsukuda Island was located near the mouth of the Sumida River. During the late sixteenth century, when Tokugawa Ieyasu was ascending to power, he was supposedly assisted by the fishermen of a village called Tsukuda in Settsu (present-day Osaka prefecture). In return, he invited thirty-four fishing families to move to Edo and granted them an island east of the city, which was named after their former village in 1644. Hokusai included ships of varying types in many of the Thirty-six Views, often depicting them in great detail. This print is of special interest for its variety of vessels, from small rowboats and ferries in the foreground to larger masted ships in the distance. The triangular arrangement of compositional elements focuses the viewer’s eye on Mount Fuji near the center of the horizon, while the shapes of the masts, rooftops, and even the triangular prows of the boats echo the form of the volcano. “Hokusai’s Summit: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” (09/24/2009-01/06/2010) ******************************

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