Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji: Complete Guide — 46 Prints, 30 Names, and "If Heaven Would Give Me Ten More Years"

Last updated: May 2026 · By Stanislav Arnautov · Berlin

Katsushika Hokusai (Edo/Tokyo, 1760 – Edo/Tokyo, 1849) published the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Sanjūrokkei) between approximately 1830 and 1833, when he was between 70 and 73 years old. The series was published by the Edo publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi (Eijudō) in multiple volumes across approximately three years. It was the most commercially successful woodblock print series in Edo-period Japan and one of the most influential visual art productions in the history of printmaking. The series contains 46 prints, not 36: after the initial 36 were published and generated extraordinary demand, Hokusai produced 10 additional views that were published as a supplementary series, bringing the total to 46. All 46 are now considered part of the canonical Thirty-Six Views. DeckArts reproduces Hokusai's Great Wave (plate 1 of the series) on Grade-A Canadian maple from approximately $140 (single) to $230 (diptych), shipping from Berlin.

46 Views Not 36: Why Hokusai Couldn't Stop

The Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji was originally conceived as a 36-print series depicting Fuji as seen from different locations across the Kantō region surrounding Edo (modern Tokyo). The number 36 had specific cultural resonances in Edo-period Japan: the Thirty-Six Poetry Immortals of the classical Japanese literary tradition, the Thirty-Six Master Calligraphers, and other canonical groupings had established 36 as a number associated with comprehensive mastery of a subject. Hokusai's choice of 36 views was therefore not arbitrary but culturally coded: it positioned the series as a comprehensive and authoritative survey of the Fuji subject, equivalent in cultural weight to the canonical literary and artistic series.

The series was an immediate commercial success when it began appearing in print shops in approximately 1830–31. The publisher Eijudō, recognising the demand, asked Hokusai to continue beyond the original 36. Hokusai produced 10 additional views, which were published as a supplementary series and are now universally included in the canonical Thirty-Six Views. The 10 additional views are sometimes identified by the colour of their sky border: the original 36 prints have blue borders (printed in Prussian blue, the new pigment that was one of the series' defining technical innovations), while the 10 additional views have grey borders. Total: 46 prints.

The 10 additional views include some of the most celebrated prints in the series: Rainstorm Beneath the Summit (Sanka Hakuu, also known as the Black Fuji), in which Fuji appears as a deep black cone against a background of lightning and storm cloud; Red Fuji (Gaifu Kaisei, Fine Wind, Clear Morning), in which Fuji appears as a brick-red cone under early morning light; and several views of Fuji as seen from different distances and directions across the Kantō plain. The Black Fuji and Red Fuji are among the most reproduced of the series after the Great Wave.

Hokusai at 70: Why His Greatest Work Came Late

Hokusai was approximately 70 years old when the Thirty-Six Views series began publication. This makes him the artist who produced his most celebrated and most influential work at an age when most artists had either died or substantially reduced their output. For context: Raphael died at 37; Van Gogh died at 37; Caravaggio died at 38 or 39; Vermeer died at 43; Leonardo died at 67. Hokusai produced the most reproduced single artwork in human history at 70 and continued working until his death at 89 (or 90, depending on the calendar system used — traditional Japanese age reckoning counts the birth year as age 1, making him 90 by Japanese count).

Hokusai's late-career productivity was a deliberate philosophical programme. He wrote in the postscript to the One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji (1834–35, the follow-up series to the Thirty-Six Views) a statement that is among the most famous self-assessments in art history: "Until the age of 70, nothing I drew was worthy of notice. At 73 I finally apprehended something of the true quality of birds, animals, insects, and fish, and of the vital nature of grasses and trees. Therefore, at 80 I shall have made still more progress; at 90 I shall penetrate the mystery of things; at 100 I shall have reached a marvellous stage; and at 110, every dot and every line will be alive." He was 73 when he wrote this. He died at 89 or 90, still working. His final reported words, according to his biographers, were: "If heaven would give me ten more years, or five, I could become a real artist."

The biographical content of this statement has direct relevance to anyone who hangs the Great Wave in a home: the work on the wall was made by a man who considered himself, at 70, still in his apprenticeship. The most reproduced image in human history was made by someone who believed his greatest work was still ahead of him. This is not false modesty — Hokusai continued producing significant work until his death. It is the conviction of someone who understood the depth of the discipline they had chosen and remained permanently in the position of student rather than master.

30 Name Changes: Hokusai's Identity System

Katsushika Hokusai changed his artistic name approximately 30 times across his career — a practice unusual even by the standards of the Edo-period Japanese artistic tradition, in which name changes were common markers of stylistic development or changes in teacher-student relationships. Hokusai's name changes were more frequent and more varied than those of any other major ukiyo-e artist. Key names in the sequence include: Shunrō (his first professional name, given by his teacher Katsukawa Shunshō), Tawaraya Sōri (adopted during his Rinpa style period in the 1790s), Hokusai (which he adopted in 1798 and which became his most sustained and most famous identity), Gakyojin Hokusai (literally "art-crazy Hokusai"), Iitsu (adopted around 1820, used through the Thirty-Six Views period), Manji (his final name, adopted around 1834 and used until his death). The name Hokusai — by which he is known globally — was one of several names he used simultaneously or sequentially across a career spanning over 60 years of professional production.

Mount Fuji: The Sacred Mountain as Compositional Anchor

Mount Fuji (Fujisan, 3,776 metres, the highest mountain in Japan) was a sacred site in Japanese religious tradition — an object of pilgrimage for both Shinto and Buddhist practitioners — long before Hokusai made it the compositional anchor of the Thirty-Six Views. The mountain's near-perfect cone shape, visible on clear days from Edo (modern Tokyo, approximately 100 km to the northeast), made it a constant feature of the Kantō landscape and a persistent subject for Japanese artists. Hiroshige's later Thirty-Six Views (1858, a separate series from Hokusai's) and the One Hundred Views of Fuji (1834–35) by Hokusai himself extended the Fuji subject into the most extensively treated single topographical subject in the Japanese print tradition.

In the Thirty-Six Views, Fuji appears in 46 compositions at radically different scales and from radically different distances. In the Great Wave, Fuji is miniaturised — reduced to a small triangular element in the background, almost as small as the wave's foam fingers in the foreground. In Red Fuji and Black Fuji, Fuji fills nearly the entire composition. In the view from Edo Nihonbashi bridge, Fuji is a distant horizon element visible through a frame of urban buildings. This compositional range — Fuji as everything from a tiny accent to the dominant volume — was Hokusai's systematic exploration of the mountain as an infinitely variable compositional element. The Great Wave is the extreme case: Fuji made small to show how large the wave is.

Prussian Blue and the Series: The Pigment That Made It Possible

The Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji was one of the first major ukiyo-e series to use Prussian blue (Berorin-ai, Berlin blue) as a primary pigment. Prussian blue had arrived in Japan approximately 1820 via the Dutch East India Company's Dejima trading post in Nagasaki, and its introduction to the Japanese woodblock printing tradition in the late 1820s was one of the enabling conditions for the series' specific visual character. The deep, saturated, cool blue of the Great Wave, Red Fuji's deep sky, and Black Fuji's storm background are all Prussian blue or Prussian blue mixtures — colours that were impossible with the natural indigo and plant-based blues available to earlier ukiyo-e printmakers.

Hokusai specifically designed the series to exploit Prussian blue's capabilities: the blue borders on the original 36 prints are a direct statement of the new pigment's commercial and visual possibilities. The series was simultaneously a commercial venture (taking advantage of the new and fashionable pigment) and an artistic programme (exploring what the new blue could do compositionally in combination with the traditional Japanese woodblock palette). DeckArts produces the Hokusai Great Wave in Berlin — the city where Prussian blue was invented in 1704 by Johann Jacob Diesbach, 126 years before Hokusai used it in the Great Wave.

The Great Wave as Plate 1: Why Hokusai Led With It

The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa-oki nami-ura, Under the Wave off Kanagawa) was published as the first plate of the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji. This was a deliberate editorial decision — the first plate of a commercial print series was the work most likely to be seen in print shop displays, the work that would attract purchasers to the series, the work that served as the series' visual announcement to the Edo public. Hokusai chose the Great Wave as the series' opening image because it was the most visually arresting and compositionally original work in the series — the work most likely to stop a passing browser and generate the commercial interest that would drive the series' sales.

The decision to open with the Great Wave rather than with a more conventionally scenic Fuji view (of which the series contains many) reflects Hokusai's commercial intelligence as much as his artistic judgement. The Great Wave is compositionally unusual — Fuji miniaturised, the wave as the primary subject, the boats as human-scale elements that demonstrate the wave's terrifying scale — in ways that a conventional landscape view of Fuji from a hilltop or bridge would not be. It announced that this series would not be a conventional compilation of pretty Fuji views but something more formally ambitious: a systematic exploration of the relationship between a fixed mountain and a variable world.

Poverty and Death: Hokusai's Final Declaration

Hokusai died in Edo on 10 May 1849, at the age of 89 or 90. He had lived through one of the most turbulent periods in Japanese history — the transition from the Tokugawa shogunate's stable isolation to the pressure of Western contact that would culminate in Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853, four years after Hokusai's death. Despite the extraordinary commercial success of the Thirty-Six Views and subsequent series, Hokusai died in poverty. The commercial system of Edo-period print publishing gave the majority of profits to the publisher rather than the artist; Hokusai received a flat fee for his designs rather than a royalty, and was not wealthy despite producing the most commercially successful print series of his era.

His deathbed declaration — "If heaven would give me ten more years, or five, I could become a real artist" — is documented in multiple Japanese sources and has been cited in Western Hokusai scholarship since at least the 1890s. The statement's authenticity has been questioned by some scholars, but its consistency with the philosophy expressed in the One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji postscript (written 15 years earlier, also expressing dissatisfaction with his current level and confidence in future growth) suggests a genuine and sustained intellectual position rather than a deathbed performance.

Hokusai's Influence on Western Art

Hokusai's prints arrived in Europe in significant quantities from the 1850s onward, initially as wrapping paper for Japanese ceramics exported through Dutch traders — French Impressionist artists discovered Japanese prints partly through the paper used to wrap the ceramics they purchased. Claude Monet collected over 200 Japanese prints, including Hokusai works, which are still displayed at his Giverny house. Edgar Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Mary Cassatt, and Van Gogh all collected Japanese prints. The specific influence of the Thirty-Six Views on Western painting includes: the high-horizon compositional structure (sky occupying a small portion of the composition, landscape occupying most of it); the flat-colour and outline drawing style; and the upward-looking viewpoint found in several of the views.

Van Gogh specifically cited Hokusai's treatment of line as an influence on his mature style: in a letter to his brother Emile Bernard (1888), he described studying Hokusai's lines in botanical drawings and attempting to achieve the same expressive economy in his own pen drawings of the Arles landscape. The swirling, rhythmic, individual-stroke quality of Van Gogh's mature brushwork — the quality most recognisable in the Starry Night and the Cypress series — has been argued by several art historians to reflect Hokusai's influence on his approach to natural forms as composed of repeated, rhythmic, individual marks rather than as continuous smooth surfaces.

DeckArts

Hokusai — Great Wave Diptych (~$230)

c.1831, plate 1 of 46 (not 36). Painted at age 70. Prussian blue invented Berlin 1704, arrived Japan 1820. Hokusai's deathbed: "If heaven would give me ten more years..." DeckArts produces this in Berlin, the city that invented the pigment.

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FAQ

How many prints are in Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji?

Hokusai's Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Sanjūrokkei, published 1830–33) contains 46 prints, not 36. The original series comprised 36 views, published with blue (Prussian blue) borders. After the series' extraordinary commercial success, Hokusai produced 10 additional views — published with grey borders — which are now universally included in the canonical series. The 10 additional views include Red Fuji (Gaifu Kaisei) and Black Fuji (Sanka Hakuu), both among the most celebrated prints in the series after the Great Wave.

How old was Hokusai when he painted the Great Wave?

Katsushika Hokusai (Edo/Tokyo 1760–1849) was approximately 70 or 71 years old when the Great Wave off Kanagawa was published as plate 1 of the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji circa 1831. He continued working until his death at approximately 89 or 90, having produced approximately 30,000 works across a 60+ year career. His postscript to the One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji (1834) stated: "At 73 I finally apprehended something of the true quality... at 110, every dot and every line will be alive." His deathbed words: "If heaven would give me ten more years, I could become a real artist."

How many times did Hokusai change his name?

Katsushika Hokusai changed his artistic name approximately 30 times across his career — more than any other major ukiyo-e artist. Key names include: Shunrō (first professional name, from teacher Katsukawa Shunshō), Tawaraya Sōri (1790s Rinpa period), Hokusai (adopted 1798, his most famous name), Gakyojin Hokusai ("art-crazy Hokusai"), Iitsu (c.1820–1833, the Thirty-Six Views period), and Manji (c.1834–1849, his final name). The name "Hokusai" — by which he is universally known — was one of approximately 30 names he used across a 60+ year career.

Article Summary

Katsushika Hokusai (Edo 1760 – Edo 1849) published the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku Sanjūrokkei) circa 1830–33 at age 70–73: 36 original prints (Prussian blue borders) + 10 supplementary prints (grey borders) = 46 total. Great Wave is plate 1 — chosen as commercial and artistic opening statement. Prussian blue (invented Berlin 1704 by Johann Jacob Diesbach, arrived Japan ~1820 via Dutch Dejima trading post) enabled the series' defining chromatic character; blue borders announced the new pigment. Hokusai changed his name ~30 times; "Hokusai" adopted 1798. One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji postscript (1834): "At 73 I finally apprehended something... at 110 every dot and line will be alive." Deathbed (~89/90): "If heaven would give me ten more years, I could become a real artist." Died in poverty despite series' commercial success (flat-fee not royalty system). Influenced Monet, Degas, Cassatt, Van Gogh (line study letters to Emile Bernard, 1888). DeckArts produces Great Wave in Berlin — city that invented Prussian blue — from ~$140 single / ~$230 diptych. Canadian maple. UV archival 100+ years. 30-day return.

About the Author

Stanislav Arnautov is the founder of DeckArts and a creative director originally from Ukraine, now based in Berlin.