Fuji from Orankai (Orankai no Fuji): Detatched page from One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku hyakkei) Vol. 3 c. 1835 - 1847

Editor: This is Hokusai’s "Fuji from Orankai", from his series "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji". I’m struck by the contrast between the detailed foreground and the almost ethereal depiction of Mount Fuji in the distance. How should we interpret this contrast? Curator: The woodblock print is not just a landscape. It comments on the social hierarchies present in Edo period Japan. Notice how the figures are placed in relation to Fuji, and consider what their everyday lives might have entailed. Whose stories are often left out when we talk about iconic landscapes? Editor: So, it's not just about the mountain, but about the people and their relationship to it, and to each other? Curator: Precisely. Hokusai invites us to consider whose perspective is centered and whose is marginalized within the landscape itself and within the art world. Editor: That reframes how I see it entirely. I appreciate this perspective on Hokusai's work. Curator: Indeed. It is a good opportunity to challenge dominant narratives.