Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) Ascending Dragon Edo period (1615-1868), dated 1840
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Find your local specialistKatsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) Ascending Dragon
Kakejiku (hanging scroll), ink and slight colours on paper in silk mounts, depicting a dragon ascending above a great wave crashing under Mount Fuji, signed Gakyo Rojin manji hitsu yowai hachijuichi (Brush of Manji, old man crazy to paint, aged 81) and sealed Katsushika; with a double wood storage box, the inner box inscribed outside the lid Noboriryu, Fuji no e (Picture of an ascending dragon and Mount Fuji). Overall: 193cm x 58.4cm (76in x 23in); image: 135.3cm × 37.2cm (53¼in × 14 5/8in). (3).
Footnotes
Published:
Hokusaikan Museum, Gakyojin Katsushika Hokusai (Katsushika Hokusai, Mad About Art), exhibition catalogue, Obuse, Nagano Pref., Hokusaikan, 2010, cat.no.103.
Asano Shugo (ed.), Hokusai ketteiban (The Definitive Hokusai Edition), Bessatsu Taiyo, 25 November 2010, p.21.
Exhibited:
Hokusaikan Museum, Takai Kozan Memorial Museum and Obuse Museum/The Nakajima Chinami Gallery, Fuji to sakura ten (Fuji and Cherry Blossom Exhibition), October 2010.
As noted by the authors of Hokusai ketteiban (The Definitive Hokusai Edition), referred to above, Hokusai loved to paint dragons, most often rising energetically into the firmament. They suggest that the present lot might be viewed as a precursor to another scroll (see Hokusai ketteiban, p.47) painted in the last year of Hokusai's long life and depicting the same combination of his favourite motifs of Mount Fuji and a dragon (the latter perhaps an embodiment of Hokusai himself); here, however, Hokusai also looks backwards to his most famous woodblock print design Kanagawa-oki nami-ura (generally known as 'The Great Wave'), published around 1830-1. The rising dragon and Fuji pairing became particularly popular in the late Edo period; for an example by Suzuki Kiitsu painted a few years after the present lot, see Matthew P. McKelway, Silver Wind: The Arts of Sakai Hoitsu (1761–1828), New York, Japan Society, 2012, cat.no.51.