
The Mitsui Shop in Surugacho in Edo (Koto Surugacho Mitsui mise ryakuzu), from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)"
- Series:
- Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji
- Date:
- c. 1830/33
- Medium:
- Color woodblock print; oban
- Source:
- Art Institute of Chicago
Description
The Mitsui Shop in Surugacho in Edo (Koto Surugacho Mitsui mise ryakuzu) is a Katsushika Hokusai ukiyo-e print from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei), dated about 1825 and held in the Art Institute of Chicago. The print depicts the great Echigoya dry-goods emporium operated by the Mitsui family in Edo's Surugacho district, the predecessor of today's Mitsukoshi department store and one of the most important commercial enterprises of the period. Hokusai frames the street between long tile-roofed shop facades, with banners advertising cash payment for cloth, workmen on rooftops, and pedestrians moving among kago palanquins. Mount Fuji rises at the far end of the street, perfectly aligned along the avenue's vanishing point, a visual joke that turns the bustling commercial corridor into a sacred axis. The composition demonstrates Hokusai's command of one-point perspective absorbed from imported Dutch prints, recast within the Edo ukiyo-e idiom. The aerial banners, a kite caught against the sky and birds gathering on the rooftops add atmospheric play. As an Edo ukiyo-e print, the design captures the proud civic identity of nineteenth-century Edo and the way Katsushika Hokusai integrated commerce, perspective, and devotion to Fuji into a single sheet. The Art Institute of Chicago preserves this iconic ukiyo-e print as part of its full set of Thirty-six Views.
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Featured in Collections
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Mitsui Shop in Surugacho in Edo (Koto Surugacho Mitsui mise ryakuzu), from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)" was created by Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎) in c. 1830/33.
Yes — The Mitsui Shop in Surugacho in Edo (Koto Surugacho Mitsui mise ryakuzu), from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)" is part of the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji series by Katsushika Hokusai.
The Mitsui Shop in Surugacho in Edo (Koto Surugacho Mitsui mise ryakuzu), from the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjurokkei)" depicts landscapes and mount fuji.