Mt.Fuji

A treatment of Fuji-san, the dormant volcano whose conical silhouette has supported genres ranging from Heian poem-pictures through the Edo [meisho-e](/glossary/meisho-e) of Hokusai and Hiroshige into twentieth-century [shin-hanga](/glossary/shin-hanga) landscape. As a print subject, Fuji admits a wide range of compositional approaches: a distant view across a foreground motif (figure, pine, water), dawn or dusk lighting that allows the snow cap to register as [bokashi](/glossary/bokashi) gradation, or a near-silhouette study isolating the cone against atmospheric sky. Technically, a Fuji print typically depends on bokashi work in the sky and at the snow line, with the keyblock supplying the contour and one or more solid color blocks supplying the body of the mountain and any foreground elements. The print would be pulled by [baren](/glossary/baren) onto [washi](/glossary/washi), with registration accuracy critical at the snow boundary. Within Shusui's broader output, landscape subjects—particularly recognizable peaks and waterways—form the better-documented portion of the artist's catalogue, and a Fuji print sits comfortably within that established direction.