Mount Fuji at Daybreak (Fuji no akebono)

Mount Fuji at Daybreak (Fuji no akebono), undated, depicts the sacred volcano in the pre-dawn or early dawn light when the sky transitions from the last darkness of night through the deep blue of nautical twilight to the first pale gold of sunrise — the akebono (dawning) that Japanese aesthetics associated with the most poignant transitional quality of light. The akebono Fuji subject required Hasui to capture a sky in continuous gradual change: from deep indigo through purple to rose and gold, with the mountain's silhouette darkening against the brightening sky. This undated composition is one of several treatments of Fuji's dawn light in his catalog.