This is a woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai and is part of the "36 Views of Mount Fuji" series.

This is a large frontal view of Mt. Fuji, with a sea of trees at the bottom of the picture, cirrus clouds in the sky, and a snow-covered valley at the top of Mt.

Together with another print in this series, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, it is probably the most widely known work of Japanese art in the world and the most famous landscape painting in Ukiyoe.

Derived from "Fine Wind" and an ancient Japanese poetry book, it means the "soft" south wind that blows in summer.

Some say it is reddened by the morning sun, while others say it is made red to emphasize the brown surface of Mt.

<Print Transition>

Early impressions, called pink Fuji, are very rare. The early ones have a brighter sky and more movement in the clouds because the blue sky is deliberately uneven.

Subsequent prints have a strong, even blue tone, and the printer added a new block, overprinting the white clouds on the horizon with light blue.

 In this version, the clouds are only just visible in the upper portion. The sky is mostly rendered in a flat pale blue with a thin strip of grey at the top, and a graduated strip of Prussian blue along the horizon which extends up the slope of the mountain.

＜About the author,　Katsushika Hokusai＞

Hokusai was born in Edo (now Tokyo) and was a student of the ukiyo-e artist Katsukawa Shunsho. He learned all kinds of painting techniques from the Kano school, Chinese and Western painting, and produced many pictures of famous places (ukiyoe landscapes) and actors' pictures.

"Fine Wind, Clear Morning" is a work by Hokusai when he was 72 years old.

He produced more than 30,000 works in his lifetime. He was ambitious from a young age and was outstanding in his prints as well as in Ukiyoe.

In his later years, he also studied and experimented with copperplate printing and glass painting. He was also interested in oil painting, but he failed to achieve this in his long 90 years of life.

Hokusai was also famous for his many moves, which are believed to be as many as 93 times. He once moved three times a day.

It is said that he moved three times in one day because he was so focused on painting that he moved every time his room became dirty or rotten.

When he finally moved into his old house for the 93rd time, his room was still as messy as when he moved out, so he took this opportunity to stop moving.