About This Print

This 14th print in the 36 print series depicts a quiet summer day looking out at a snowless Mount Fuji from the swimming area next to the Ejiri harbor in Shizuoka prefecture.  The sign in the lower right reads 三保海水浴場行 (Miho sea bathing area.)  This print is the original issue (first edition between 1939-1940) published by Uchida Woodblock Printing Company as part of the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. 

The Series - Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

Published by Uchida Bijutsu Shoten between 1939 and 1940, this 36-print set (plus an introductory sheet and a table of contents sheet) by Tokuriki Tomikichirō (1902-2000) is a more modern take on Hokusai's (1760–1849) famous series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (1826-1833).  

Tokuriki's series was extremely popular with domestic and foreign buyers who purchased one thousand copies within a short time after issuance.¹  Various prints from this series were re-printed in subsequent years and subsets of the thirty-six prints were repackaged into newly named series, such as Eight Views of Mount Fuji and Four Season of Mount Fuji, released in the 1950s.  Later printings omit the information in the margin, modify Tokuriki's signature and change the seals below his signature appearing in the image area of the print.

¹ Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints - The Early Years, Helen Merritt, University of Hawaii Press, 1998, p. 89.

Format of Margin Annotations and Image Signatures and Seals of Original Edition
Source: Modern Japanese Prints: 1912-1989, Lawrence Smith, British Museum Press, 1994, p. 50.

¹ The kiwame (examined) censor's seal is an enlarged reproduction of the one used by government-appointed censors from 1790 onwards.