Author
Prints and Graphics
Fine Wind, Clear Morning
Fine Wind, Clear Morning, also known as Red Fuji, is a woodblock print by Japanese artist Hokusai (1760–1849), part of his Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, dating from c. 1830 to 1832. The work has been described as "one of the simplest and at the same time one of the most outstanding of all Japanese prints".
Intro source: Wikipedia (EN)
Its significance comes from how image, rhythm, and material hold together the rhythm of line, reproducibility, and the power of concise composition.
Highlights
Surprising facts & legends
Short but striking stories around the work — the things that make it come alive.
Interesting facts
The story around the work
Interesting facts & legends
- Known as 'Red Fuji,' this print captures the mountain glowing red for just a few mornings in late summer when light and air align.
- It comes from Hokusai's series 'Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji' — the same series as the famous 'Great Wave.'
- The whole image is built from barely three or four flat colors, yet it feels monumental and serene.
- Early, fresh impressions show pink clouds, while later printings turned them whiter as the woodblocks wore down.
- Hokusai was in his seventies when he made the series and claimed he was only just learning to draw properly.
Estimated value
What it is worth today
'Red Fuji' is a colour woodblock print; impressions are held in museums worldwide, and fine examples fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars at auction.
More details Open the extended reading, official sources, and visual context around the work
Historical context
Fine Wind, Clear Morning inside its era
Fine Wind, Clear Morning is now associated with Yamanashi Prefectural Museum, Yamanashi and helps viewers read prints and graphics as a living history of images rather than a list of dates.
Fine Wind, Clear Morning, also known as Red Fuji, is a woodblock print by Japanese artist Hokusai (1760–1849), part of his Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, dating from c. 1830 to 1832. The work has been described as "one of the simplest and at the same time one of the most outstanding of all Japanese prints". The location in Yamanashi Prefectural Museum, Yamanashi matters too, because it frames the work not as an isolated icon but as part of a living institutional history.
Path to recognition
How the work became widely known
The work is famous because it joins a clear silhouette, a strong image, and a durable cultural memory that even first-time viewers can enter.
Value
Why the work matters now
Its significance comes from how image, rhythm, and material hold together the rhythm of line, reproducibility, and the power of concise composition.
Connections and legacy
How to read the work more broadly
'Red Fuji', from the same series as the Great Wave, deepened the cult of Mount Fuji and the wave of Japonisme in Europe, becoming one of ukiyo-e's most recognizable landscapes.
Official sources
Where to verify the institutional context
- Official institution site Yamanashi Prefectural Museum
Visual context
Related images and nearby entry points
Katsushika Hokusai
What to look at
Three entry points into the work
Even a very famous artwork opens more fully when the viewer knows where to look for tension, meaning, and compositional focus.
- Watch how line and shape build the composition with almost no excess detail.
- See how the repeatable nature of printmaking affects the force of the image.
- Read the work not only as an isolated image, but as part of the history of prints and graphics.
More by the artist
More works: Katsushika Hokusai
Keep exploring this artist — these works are on Artatlas too.
Continue the exhibition
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This makes it easier to move through art not as a list of names, but as a connected system of images, themes, and historical gestures.
