Mt.-Choukai on a-Fine Day

Mount Chokai, a 2,236-meter stratovolcano on the border of Akita and Yamagata prefectures in northern Honshu, is sometimes called Dewa Fuji for its conical resemblance to Mount Fuji. This print depicts the mountain on a clear day, when its symmetrical profile and snow-streaked upper slopes are fully visible above the surrounding lowlands. The composition likely places Chokai as the dominant background mass, with rice fields, farm buildings, or a foreground tree-line establishing the scale of the rural plain in front. [Bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradations would render the gradual transition from the mountain's deep base to its lighter, snow-touched summit, while flat color blocks structure the agricultural foreground. The numbered title suggests this is part of a series Ohtsu produced of the same subject under different conditions — a practice with deep precedent in the [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) tradition, most famously in Hokusai's and Hiroshige's multi-view treatments of Fuji. Ohtsu's Chokai prints continue this tradition while transposing it to a less-celebrated peak in his northern home region.