Science Fiction Fantasy Chronicles: forums - View Single Post - "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai" excerpts and ukiyo-e

ckovacs · 10th December 2007, 01:01 PM

I had written a reply in this thread, but it didn't get posted for some reason.

The story was written in 1984, not 1985. It was published in 1985.

The book that Zelazny owned, and which I also have, is "Hokuai’s Views of Mt. Fuji" published by Charles Tuttle in 1965. It contains exactly 24 of Hokusai's images with poetry by Easley Stephen Jones to accompany each painting. Zelazny's story cites the paintings in exactly the same order in which they occur in this small book. I highly recommend viewing the images as you reread the story, because it will then be clear that the narrator (Mari) is referring to a lot of elements in the paintings as the story goes along.

Hokusai's book containing 36 views of Mt. Fuji is better known, which has led to confusion as to whether Zelazny was cherry-picking 24 from the 36 in that book. But he wasn't, as I mentioned, he was using the book containing 24.

Hokusai did well over 100 paintings of Mt. Fuji, and one book of his has exactly 100 of these images.

10th December 2007, 01:01 PM	#7 (permalink)
ckovacs Christopher Kovacs Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Canada Posts: 24	Re: "24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai" excerpts and ukiyo-e I had written a reply in this thread, but it didn't get posted for some reason. The story was written in 1984, not 1985. It was published in 1985. The book that Zelazny owned, and which I also have, is "Hokuai’s Views of Mt. Fuji" published by Charles Tuttle in 1965. It contains exactly 24 of Hokusai's images with poetry by Easley Stephen Jones to accompany each painting. Zelazny's story cites the paintings in exactly the same order in which they occur in this small book. I highly recommend viewing the images as you reread the story, because it will then be clear that the narrator (Mari) is referring to a lot of elements in the paintings as the story goes along. Hokusai's book containing 36 views of Mt. Fuji is better known, which has led to confusion as to whether Zelazny was cherry-picking 24 from the 36 in that book. But he wasn't, as I mentioned, he was using the book containing 24. Hokusai did well over 100 paintings of Mt. Fuji, and one book of his has exactly 100 of these images.