Poem by Gon-Chunagon Masafusa (Oe no Masafusa) belongs to Katsushika Hokusai's unfinished series One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by a Wet Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki), originally designed in the mid-1830s and reissued in later impressions, including the one in the Art Institute of Chicago dated 1921. The verse by Oe no Masafusa describes cherry blossoms at the high mountain peak, glimpsed from below across distant hills, and Hokusai responds with a sweeping mountainscape in which travelers cluster along a road as blossoming trees rise toward the misted summit. The print exemplifies the series' central conceit, in which classical Heian poetry is reinterpreted through scenes of contemporary Japanese terrain and rural labor. The Edo [ukiyo-e](/glossary/ukiyo-e) print design layers warm-toned figures against cool, receding mountain bands so that the eye can read the verse spatially as well as poetically. Although this particular impression dates from a posthumous restrike, it carries the original block design that Katsushika Hokusai conceived in his seventies, when he was attempting to bring a unifying landscape sensibility to the venerated anthology. As a ukiyo-e print, it shows how Hokusai treated even canonical poetry as material for rigorous topographical thinking. Later impressions like this one preserve the integrity of the design while documenting the long afterlife of Hokusai's compositions, which continued to be printed by workshops well into the early twentieth century. Collectors value both the original 1830s impressions and the high-quality later restrikes such as the Chicago sheet for the way they keep one of Hokusai's most ambitious series visible to modern audiences.
1821
Color woodblock print with metallic pigments; surimono shikishiban
1822
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
1822
Color woodblock print; shikishiban, surimono
c. 1832
Color woodblock print; oban
c. 1845/48
Color woodblock print; oban
c. 1845/48
Color woodblock print; oban
1835/36
Color woodblock print; oban
c. 1842
Color woodblock print; oban
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Poem by Gon-Chunagon Masafusa (Oe no Masafusa), from the series “One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by a Wet Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki)” was created by Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎) in 1921.
Yes — Poem by Gon-Chunagon Masafusa (Oe no Masafusa), from the series “One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by a Wet Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki)” is part of the One Hundred Poems as Explained by the Wet Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki) series by Katsushika Hokusai.
Poem by Gon-Chunagon Masafusa (Oe no Masafusa), from the series “One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets Explained by a Wet Nurse (Hyakunin isshu uba ga etoki)” depicts hyakunin isshu and landscapes.