Saturday, 18 July 2009

One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji

by Katsushika Hokusai

A few years ago, I ordered the hardback edition of this book from the Amazon Marketplace. The book promptly arrived from America. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a paperback. I have contacted the seller who not only immediately ordered the refund from Amazon but, to my surprise, asked me to keep the book. Which was very nice.

From the age of six I had a penchant for copying the form of things, and from about fifty, my pictures were frequently published; but until the age of seventy, nothing that I drew was worthy of notice. At seventy-three years, I was somewhat able to fathom the growth of plants and trees, and the structure of birds, animals, insects, and fish. Thus when I reached eighty years, I hope to have made increasing progress, and at ninety to see further into the underlying principles of things, so that at one hundred years I will have achieved a divine state in my art, and at one hundred and ten, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive. Those of you who live long enough, bear witness that these words of mine prove not false.

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