South Wind, Clear Weather

Katsushika Hokusai

1830–33

Woodblock print (nishiki-e), ink and color on paper

Minneapolis Institute of Art

A vibrant woodblock print depicts Mount Fuji, colored in shades of orange and white, set against a deep blue sky filled with wispy white clouds. The lower portion of the image features a green, tree-covered slope leading up to the mountain. A vibrant woodblock print depicts Mount Fuji, colored in shades of orange and white, set against a deep blue sky filled with wispy white clouds. The lower portion of the image features a green, tree-covered slope leading up to the mountain. This extremely simple composition is one Japan’s most iconic artworks, and arguably Hokusai’s most powerful and enigmatic rendering of Mount Fuji. Showing a solitary mountain in russet tones, it is nicknamed “Red Fuji (Aka Fuji ). The title South Wind, Clear Weather indicates that the mountain takes on such an appearance at sunrise during summer, when a warm breeze from the south blows across Jap