Hosshoji no Nyudo Saki no Nanpaku Dajo Daijin

Hosshoji no Nyudo Saki no Nanpaku Dajo Daijin, dated to 1835, is another design from Katsushika Hokusai's late series One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki), an illustrated commentary on the classical anthology compiled by Fujiwara no Teika. The lay priest of Hosshoji, formerly Chancellor Fujiwara no Tadamichi, contributed a celebrated waka to the anthology that meditates on waves and the sea, and Hokusai transforms the poem into a vigorous coastal scene populated by fishermen at work. As a ukiyo-e print, the composition demonstrates the artist's mature ability to translate aristocratic literary tradition into Edo ukiyo-e visual idioms accessible to a broad commercial audience. Prussian blue dominates the agitated water while figures in straw raincoats bend over their nets in the foreground. The Victoria and Albert Museum preserves an impression of this design, with the censor seal and the publisher Eijudo's mark allowing close attention to the publishing context. The series is notable for its mixture of completed prints, key-block proofs and never-issued designs, reflecting the difficulties Hokusai and his publishers faced in sustaining such an ambitious literary project. The V&A holdings make it possible to trace the iconographic logic by which Hokusai connects a centuries-old courtly poem to a vibrant contemporary scene.