Mount Tenpo at the Mouth of the Aji River in Settsu Province (Sesshu Ajikawaguchi Tenpozan), from the series "Unusual Views of Famous Bridges in Various Provinces (Shokoku meikyo kiran)"

Mount Tenpo at the Mouth of the Aji River in Settsu Province belongs to Unusual Views of Famous Bridges in Various Provinces (Shokoku meikyo kiran), Katsushika Hokusai's series of about eleven prints exploring spectacular and unusual bridges across Japan, published around 1828. Tenpozan was a new artificial hill in Osaka, raised in the early 1830s from dredgings of the Aji River to improve harbor access, and it quickly became one of the most popular sightseeing spots of the late Edo period. Hokusai depicts the bridge and harbor with sweeping diagonal lines, showing boats moving in and out, crowds promenading by the water, and the freshly made hill rising on one side. As with the other prints in the series, the design is more concerned with the social and topographical drama of a famous site than with strict topographical accuracy. The Art Institute of Chicago impression demonstrates the powerful Prussian blue palette and bold compositional structure that mark the Shokoku meikyo kiran set. As an Edo ukiyo-e print, Mount Tenpo at the Mouth of the Aji River is a striking example of how Hokusai engaged with a national landscape that was rapidly changing in the early nineteenth century. By placing a man-made hill at the center of his composition, he documented the modernizing ambitions of Osaka's port, while reaffirming the role of the ukiyo-e print as a medium for celebrating and exploring the geography of contemporary Japan.