凱風快晴 (The South Wind brings Fine Weather), Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849)

This print is from a series of prints titled “Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji,” begun in 1823 and completed around 1831. Several of the illustrations are studies of the mountain under various atmospheric conditions. Here Mt. Fuji is depicted at either dawn or dusk in the beginning of summer, just after the south winds have begun to blow and clear away the rainy season. A cool breeze can be imagined rustling through the pines depicted on the slope of the mountain. The majority of prints in the series depict Fuji as a background against which common people are shown engaged in everyday activities.