Hokusai and Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji is a volcano with an altitude of 3,773 metres, located on a plain surrounded by five large lakes. It last erupted in 1707. It is Japan’s highest mountain and one of the country’s three sacred mountains, along with Mounts Tate and Haku. Revered as a symbol of immortality, Mount Fuji, with its almost perfect conical shape, and covered in snow in winter, has inspired countless artists, writers, poets, and painters, including creators of ukiyo-e. Although its distinctive form was initially only used in the backgrounds of scenes or portraits, in Hokusai’s work, the sacred mountain became a subject in its own right.
Hokusai’s interest in Mount Fuji can be linked to the development, during the 18th century, of Shinto worship of the mountain, notably through the work of associations (fujikō) that attracted increasing numbers of followers and pilgrims and encouraged the ascent of the mountain. Mount Fuji, whose summit is believed to hold an elixir of immortality, became an object of worship, and images representing it, a kind of protective talisman for their owners. Regardless of the artistic quality of Hokusai’s prints, the divine status of these images was the reason for the immediate success of the series entitled Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. Demonstrating his desire to identify with the sacred mountain, towards the end of his life, the artist associated a red seal in the shape of the volcano with his signature Manji, whose swastika-shaped character is a Buddhist symbol of longevity.
In 1849, on New Year’s Day, an auspicious occasion, Hokusai painted one of his last paintings, entitled Dragon Rising Above Mount Fuji. Beyond the painter’s visibly deep attachment to Mount Fuji, perhaps we can see in this work, through the depiction of the dragon and its flight toward celestial horizons, the very image of Hokusai on his quest for true art? “Hokusai left nothing to chance; he had the entire world in his head, and what he saw, he recognized. Fuji was none other than himself, it was his measure of eternity, of the sun and of storms […]. He died in 1849 at the age of eighty-nine. Today, he lives on [through] Fuji.” Nelly Delay, One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, Hazan, 2008.