Height: 25.50 centimetres

Width: 37.20 centimetres

Clark 2001

This is the first of the 'Thirty-Six Views of Mt Fuji' in the present catalogue to be printed with a black, not blue, outline and is one of ten supplementary designs issued after the first thirty-six were completed, the so-called views of the 'back of Fuji' ('ura-Fuji', cats 64-70 and 118-20). Senju was the first post-station on the Nikko and Oshu highways leading north-east out of Edo. Records of the Tempo era (1830-44) say that there were 55 inns and 9556 inhabitants, making it the largest of the four main post-stations ('shishuku') at the beginning of the highways out of the city. In 1764 official permission was given for Senju to employ up to 150 'serving women' ('meshimori onna') as prostitutes, thereby tacitly recognizing its status as one of the leading unlicensed pleasure quarters ('okabasho'). Yoshiwara was still the only licensed quarter ('Edo-gaku jiten', 1984, p. 47).

One of the main reasons for the prosperity of Senju was the large number of northern feudal lords who regularly passed through the district with their long processions of samurai retainers, travelling between Edo and their native domains under the so-called system of 'alternate attendance' ('sankin kotai'). One such procession passes across the front of the composition: the gun-carriers' muskets are sheathed in red cases while the decorated tips of the spear-bearers' weapons are almost hidden behind the trees, bottom left. Passing the roadside tea-stall at the bottom right, where straw sandals are hanging for sale under the eaves, is the back of a palanquin ('kago') which may transport the lord himself. Feudal processions were noted for the dancing gait and colourful antics of the marching retainers, and two women have seated themselves on the raised path through the fields to watch the samurai go by. Crops have already been harvested and the generous coat of snow on Fuji suggests that the season is autumn. The wooden buildings and fire-proof storehouses surrounded by a fence in the background are part of the nine blocks of the Senju pleasure quarter.

An additional impression in the British Museum collection (1906.12-20.0544) uses much paler orange and yellow for the thatch and woodwork of the foreground buildings.

References: 'Ukiyo-e taikei, vol. 13: Fugaku sanju-rokkei', Tokyo, Shueisha, 1975 (text by Kobayashi Tadashi), no. 38. 'Meihin soroimono ukiyo-e, vol. 8: Hokusai I', Tokyo, Gyosei, 1991 (text by Nagata Seiji), no. 15.

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