Koichi Okada – Mount Fuji and Nihondaira

Original woodblock print. The first edition of this design was published circa 1950. The current print was printed in the Reiwa period (2019 – present).

Koichi Okada depicts Mount Fuji as seen from the Nihondaira plateau, which is elevated considerably above its surroundings. As such, one can see Mount Fuji towering in the distance over the ancient Shimizu harbor at night.

The Nihondaira plateau is known for providing one of the best scenic views, and one might wonder why it hasn’t been used more often by Japanese woodblock print artists to depict Mount Fuji. Fortunately, Koichi Okada chose this location, even though the presence of the Shimizu harbor meant that the scene would be more modern than the other scenes in his “Twelve Views of Japan” series, resulting in one of his best prints.

Image size (excluding margins): 36.5 * 24.0 cm (14.4 * 9.4 in).

The print is in excellent condition.

The pictures shown here are from the print itself.

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Okada Koichi is known for his series of woodblock prints “Twelve views of Japan”, created around the year 1950. The series might have been intended to consist of twelve different prints, but only six are known. They depict the mount Fuji seen from Hakone, Lake Kawaguchi, Lake Ashinoko, Hagoromo and overlooking Nihondaira. All these have been printed using the original woodblocks by Unsodo, the same publisher that published the first editions.

See an overview of Koichi Okada's woodblock prints