Mt Fuji Seen from Numazu

This woodblock print captures the view of Mount Fuji from Numazu, a coastal city on Suruga Bay in Shizuoka Prefecture. The Numazu vantage point, across the bay's waters, is one of the classic viewing angles for Japan's most celebrated mountain, offering a composition that includes the sea as a foreground element. Kusaka inherits a subject with an almost overwhelming artistic pedigree, from Hokusai's Thirty-six Views to Hasui's twentieth-century interpretations, and his version must carve its own space within that lineage. The woodblock technique allows for the atmospheric effects, the haze over water, the snow on the summit, the play of cloud and light, that make each Fuji view distinct from every other. The Numazu perspective gives the mountain a low, broad profile that emphasizes its volcanic symmetry.