Museum Visit: The Edo Period, Art, and Mount Fuji
Museum Visit: The Edo Period, Art, and Mount Fuji
I chose to look at the piece New Fuji in Meguro by Utagawa Hiroshige I. This piece was printed in 1857, during the Edo Period. In the Edo period of Japan, art and technology were developing at a rapid pace. This era of domestic growth led to an increased ability to focus on art and nature. During the Edo period, or the Tokugawa period, Japan was very isolated on a global scale. This isolation lasted nearly 250 years, from 1603-1867, as the Tokugawa shogunate worked to prevent western influence within Japan.
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| New Fuji, Meguro (1857) No. 24 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo Utagawa Hiroshige Brooklyn Museum |
During the Edo Period, Japanese patriotism was encouraged. This meant that Japan was investing in itself- its culture and its people. In art, this patriotism often came in the form of Japan’s beautiful scenery, especially the sacred and beautiful Mount Fuji. This was due to the revitalization of Shinto by the government in an effort to achieve “a strong national unity under the emperor” (Bresnan 372). Shinto emphasizes the interconnectedness of humans with nature, which explains the increasing presence of nature in Edo art- especially Mt. Fuji. The video below explains why Mount Fuji is so important to Japan!
According to the article Making Mountains: Mini-Fujis, Edo Popular Religion and Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo by Melinda Takeuchi, Shinto wasn’t the only religion that venerated Mount Fuji. There were also “cults that centered on mountain worship,” and these cults believed that there was an “elixir of immortality” at “its summit” (Takeuchi 29). Members of these cults would perform various "cultic practices" like "fasting, meditating, praying, chanting mantras, ringing bells, and hanging over cliffs" to honor the mountain and would even climb the mountain to achieve rebirth (Takeuchi 7).
Mount Fuji was very religiously important to Japanese culture, making its depictions in art all the more meaningful. This article was found by searching the Fuji and the Edo Period in order to analyze the importance of Mount Fuji during this era. I looked under pieces categorized as art history because I wanted to specifically look at how Mount Fuji was depicted in the arts.
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| Map of Fujizuka |
Hiroshige’s New Fuji in Meguro displays a fujizuka (mini-Fuji) that was built in Meguro, Edo. You can see citizens- specifically women- climbing this fujizuka. This piece is done in the ukiyo-e woodblock printing style. In ukiyo-e, artists would send printers their art, where it would be reproduced. Prints could vary in color depending on the type of ink used, but artists would label what colors were supposed to go where.
The background of this landscape is Mount Fuji. In the Edo Period, Mount Fuji’s depiction would be especially important due to the revitalization of the Shinto religion. Hiroshige had to work very hard when he began painting, taking on odd jobs to support himself (Britannica 4). His series Fifty-three Station of the Tokaido skyrocketed his career, making “Hiroshige one of the most popular ukiyo-e artists of all time” (Britannica 6). He continued to pave his way as a landscape artist after this, painting views of Edo (Tokyo) and nature that surrounded him, creating his collection One Hundred Views of Edo.
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| Funabori no Fujizuka (Mini-Fuji) built of lava rocks Funabori, Japan |
The foreground contains a fujizuka built in Edo. Fujizukas were built for marginalized groups (such as women and the disabled) because they were prohibited from climbing Mt. Fuji (Takeuchi 8). By building these replicas of Mt. Fuji, it allowed these groups to fulfill their religious wishes and duties. Hiroshige’s memorialization of this fujizuka and its climbers helps audiences understand what was important to citizens of Edo during this time period- Mt. Fuji and the arts. It also reinforces how present the Fuji cult was in Edo.
Initially, I had found one of Hiroshige’s prints from his collection Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido, but when I found the journal article, I knew I wanted to learn more about fujizukas! They’re extremely interesting aspects of Japanese history, and they lean into the traditional religion of the nation. So, when I found this beautiful print depicting a fujizuka and its worshippers, I wanted to look further into it. This beautiful print was made all the more interesting by learning its contents, and it helped reiterate the importance of nature within Japanese society.
Works Cited
Greve, G. (2015, November 29). Fujizuka Mounds. Fujizuka mounds. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://edoflourishing.blogspot.com/2015/11/fujizuka-mounds.html.
“New Fuji, Meguro, No. 24 in One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.” Brooklyn Museum, www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/121639.
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