At Sea off Kazusa

The star of this print is not Fuji but the two large cargo boats in the foreground. Wind-filled sails, the many ropes stretched from the masts, even the seams between the planks along the hull are rendered with fine, careful lines. Cargo is piled high on the decks, and Fuji peeks out, very small, above the horizon through gaps between sails and rigging. The upturned prow juts toward the viewer, and the white of the sails, the pale red of the hulls, and the indigo of the sea divide the picture into crisp areas of color.

Through a small window in the side of a hull, the face of what looks like a passenger can be seen. Judging from the size of this face, the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum estimates the boat at nearly 10 meters long, though it notes that the actual size is uncertain. The tiny face lets viewers feel just how large the boat is.

Kazusa is the name of a province that corresponds to central and southern Chiba Prefecture today. In the Edo period, Edo Bay bustled with ships carrying goods. Some suggest the view was taken from around the Uraga Channel, but this is not certain. Hokusai places Fuji small in the distance and draws the boats that sustained people's lives on a grand scale.