11.Shitirigahama in Sagami Province 相州七里浜
A wide expanse unfolds
If the composition had shown beach in the foreground
sea in the middle
and more sea in the distance
the subject would blur into background
At best, it would become redundant
At worst, lifeless
Hiroshige also depicted this very place
in his Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
But working in a vertical format
he placed the sea on the left, the beach on the right, the sky above
and in doing so, avoided monotony
Hiroshige’s Shichirigahama in Sagami
But Hokusai made a different choice
He left the beach out entirely
Where Hiroshige balances by including everything
Hokusai balances by withholding
In Shichirigahama in Sagami Province
even the waves at the shoreline
are drawn like a quick sketch
Nothing like the powerful waves in The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Here, the subject is Enoshima and Fuji
What is not the subject is drawn with simplicity
And so the eye goes only where it’s meant to—
to Enoshima and to Fuji
The Fuji in this print is larger than in reality
But this, too, is compositional
From the low hill in the foreground
to Enoshima
and finally to Fuji
the flow must not end weakly
A focal point must hold the gaze
Fuji must be large enough to stop it
Hokusai does not paint what he sees
The landscape in his mind
is not a photograph
Like a child’s drawing of a face
what matters most is drawn largest
He paints what is needed
at the size it is needed
Herein lies Hokusai’s discerning eye for beauty
06
12.Tsukuda Island in the Musashi province 武陽佃嶌
When Tokugawa Ieyasu entered Edo
he summoned fishermen from Tsukuda Village in Settsu Province
This is where it began
Large cargo vessels and small takasebune riverboats fill the scene
They carry fish and salt
This was a hub for goods from Edo Bay and distant fisheries
much like today’s Toyosu Market
View of Tsukuda Island
In the foreground, a boat unloading its cargo
guided by oars and long poles
In the middle ground, Tsukuda Island and Ishikawa Island
Behind Ishikawa Island, a sailing ship appears
This was once the anchorage for the shogunate’s naval vessels
Later, the site of the Ishikawajima shipyard
In the distance, Mount Fuji
and a cluster of ships just before it
The eye moves in steps—
from the cargo boat in the foreground
to the mid-distance sailboats
to the farther vessels on the water
and finally, to the mountain that stands behind it all
But Hokusai does not stop there
This is where his wit comes in
At the farthest edge
on the round horizon of the earth
he places one last sailboat
A single ship
sailing the curve of the world
It gives the print a breathtaking sense of depth
And near it—
a forest, painted on the same horizon
points not with a finger, but with form
as if to say
Look at this ship
In Hokusai’s compositions
nothing is without purpose
Herein lies Hokusai’s discerning eye for beauty