Katsushika Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

Despite the title, there are forty-six of these views. The series sold so well on publication that ten more prints were added, and the publisher, Nishimura Yohachi, had hoped to take it past a hundred before it stopped at forty-six. Hokusai designed them in his seventies, around 1830 to 1832, showing Mount Fuji from different places, seasons and weather.

The earliest sheets were printed mostly in blue, outlines included; only once Nishimura was sure of the series did the prints go to full colour, with a separate block cut for every colour.

Fuji changes size from print to print. In The Great Wave it is a small peak behind a spiralling wave and three boats; in Fine Wind, Clear Morning it fills the right half, turned red by the early autumn sun, with delicate clouds to the left for balance. Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit, sold here as Fuji Above the Lightning, stands with those two among his most famous, and the quieter Kajikazawa in Kai Province is counted among the best of the set.