COLLECTION DETAILS

Along with The Great Wave off Kanagawa and Fine Wind, this is considered to be among the three most iconic pieces of Fuguju Sanju Rokkei ‘”Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji”). "Shower" here refers to evening rain. Compared to the clear weather at the top of the mountain, its foothills are covered in darkness, with a fork of lightning flashing down, evoking the feeling of heavy rainfall. It is a piece that expresses the grandiosity of the mountain, uniting stillness and movement to transcend nature in the most exquisite way. In Shower at Fuji in the series Fugaku hyakkei (“A Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji”), the scenery and perspective are transposed to a village at the bottom of the mountain. There was nothing resembling an airplane at that time, so Hokusai’s ability to imagine from various perspectives is truly astonishing. Amongst the many prints of Shower Below the Summit, many are based on master plates and color plates with some imperfections, so few retain the image of the first print. Some prints have lost the brown dot in the central area of the summit and others lack the bottom part of the character "fude" in the seal. Interestingly, some later prints include the addition of a pine tree.