Comment - Mt. Fuji is majestically rising in the background as seen from a town center ("市中"). A bird-of-prey kite ("tonbi dako", "鳶凧") is flying over the roof tops among the tall ladders. The kiteline repeats the slope of Mt. Fuji. All ladderrs have fire warning bells mounted on top. A scene at Shichu station of Mount Fuji.

This woodblock print is from the third volume of HOKUSAI's manga book "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji" ("富嶽百景 初編", "Fugaku Hyakkei shohen"). Sometimes art dealers cut the manga books to make more profit by selling individual pages.

The original Japanese title printed on the upper right of this page is "Shichu (city center) station at Mount Fuji" ("市中の不二",  "shichu no fuji"). There is another scene from the same series (E-Katsu Station) in volume one of this series.


Series - "Hokusai Manga" ("北斎漫画", "Hokusai manga") Illustrated book. The manga title ("100 Views of Mt.Fuji") is printed on the upper right rim ("富嶽百景") of the adjacent page (not to be seen here); the title of this page is in the upper left corner ("市中の不二",  "shichu no fuji")


Artist - see Biography


Signature - none (book page), but the sub-title "painted by the honorable old madman" ("Ga-kyō rōjin manji hitsu", "画狂老人卍筆") on the front (back) of original manga book, refers to Hokusai, combining several of his late epithets; "Fugaku Hyakkei San-hen" is printed on the side margin of this individual page.


Publisher - Nishimura Yūzō (西村祐蔵), 1834 - 35, Edo version


Image Size -  22.5 x  14.0 cm   (8 9/10" x 5 1/2") + margins as shown)


Condition - Woodblock manga (e-hon); ink on paper, singled out sheet, cut from manga book;