Fugata sanjrokkei. Jôshu Ushibori
(Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. Ushibori in Jôshû. The series and picture title is in a cartouche at the top left of the image. Jôshû is another name for the Hitachi Province, nishiki-e, signature: zen Hokusai hitsu (also translated: saki no Hokusai Iitsu hitsu). The signature is to the right of the series and picture cartouche, publisher: Eijudô, i.e. Iseya Sanjirô. The publisher’s seal is at the bottom right of the sheet. Censor seal kiwame, nishiki-e. It is located above the publisher's seal. Originally the base plate of this woodblock was printed in blue, as can be seen in the sheets of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y. no. JP2565 (The Howard Mansfield Collection) and the one in Forrer, Matthi; Hokusai. Prints and Drawings, Munich 1191, no. 19 (Mann Collection). The Fu-ji was also originally overprinted with blue, as the sheet is laid out in nuanced shades of blue (aizu-rie). The base plate seems to have been printed in black on the sheet available as a photograph to Gordon Friese, Dortmund. Its printed image is clean. Only the frame of the cartouche shows losses. Otherwise, it corresponds to the two sources mentioned and can thus be classified as a rare early print. The sheet is trimmed at the lower margin. Corners soiled and rubbed, partly wavy. The sheet shows a longitudinal fold in the middle, which has been reinforced on the reverse. The sheet is backed. In later prints, the sheet is printed with blue, green and yellow. The printing block for the reed, left below the centre of Fuji (showing as a white diagonal mark in the reed), was damaged soon. On even later prints the seals have been removed. The damage to the printing block seems to have been repaired at the end of the printing period, 24.2 x 36.5 cm, (mounted), (CT)