Mt Fuji at Dawn

This design depicts Mt. Fuji at the moment of dawn, when the first light of the sun catches the mountain's upper slopes before the surrounding landscape is fully illuminated. Hasui rendered dawn scenes with close attention to the transitional color of the sky — the warm pinks and oranges near the horizon giving way to deeper blue-violet overhead — achieved through layered bokashi on dampened washi. The cone of Fuji, often printed in a muted blue-gray or lavender, stands in tonal contrast to the warmer sky. The composition may include the silhouettes of pine trees, a lake surface, or the coastline as darkened foreground elements against the lit mountain and sky. This impression is one of two catalogued examples of the design; differences in the warmth of the dawn gradient and the depth of the foreground silhouette tones may help distinguish it from the companion impression.