Why Hokusai’s '36 Views' is Actually 46

If you count every individual woodblock print in Katsushika Hokusai’s masterpiece series, The Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, you will arrive at a surprising number: forty-six.

This historical paradox is one of the most compelling chapters in the history of ukiyo-e (Japanese woodblock printing). Far from a mathematical error, the expansion from thirty-six to forty-six prints reveals a story of brilliant 1830s commercial marketing, a deliberate shift in artistic geography, and a physical, colour-coded secret left behind on the paper itself.

Here is the story behind the ten "hidden" prints of Hokusai’s legendary collection, and how to spot the difference in your own archive.

Known as the Big Three of 36 Views of Mount Fuji - Black Fuji, The Great Wave, Red Fuji (Top to down)

The 19th-Century Blockbuster: Why 36 Became 46

When Hokusai and his publisher, Nishimuraya Yohachi (operating under the studio name Eijudo), launched the series around 1830, the master artist was entering his seventies. He was entirely starting over—quietly recovering from a stroke and managing severe family debts caused by his grandson. The series was designed as a calculated creative comeback, with Hokusai signing the work Hokusai aratame Iitsu ("From the brush of Hokusai, changed to Iitsu") to leverage his legendary past fame while launching a fresh identity.

Neither the artist nor the publisher anticipated just how profoundly the public would react.

The prints became the 1830s equivalent of a smash commercial hit. Demand was so overwhelming that the original run of thirty-six prints sold out rapidly. According to historical records preserved by curators at The British Museum, this unprecedented momentum forced Eijudo to commission an immediate extension. Rather than launching a new title from scratch, they chose to retain the famous, trusted brand of the Thirty-Six Views but expand the physical collection to a final total of forty-six plates.

Complete Collector Set of Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji.  Sourced from the Archives of Private Collectors and Museums of The Met and British Museum

The Tonal Shift: Blue Lines vs. Black Outlines

For photographers and illustrators, the real fascination isn't the commercial history—it's the dramatic tonal shift that happened between the original 36 and the additional 10.

When you study the collection side-by-side, you are looking at a clear technical dividing line. The prints are structurally split into two distinct phases:

Phase 1: The Omote-Fuji (The Front Views)

The original 36 prints are known as Omote-Fuji. They are defined by a revolutionary technical choice: Hokusai outlined the landscapes using Prussian Blue ink (berurin-ai), an imported synthetic pigment that had just become affordable in Japan.

Before this, Japanese woodblock prints relied on organic indigo, which faded quickly and lacked vibrancy. Prussian blue allowed Hokusai to capture deep, saturated sky gradients and rich water textures with incredible stability. In fact, some of the earliest prints in this phase were printed almost entirely in shades of blue, a style known as aizuri-e.

Kajikazawa in Kai Province (An early monochromatic blue print). Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Phase 2: The Ura-Fuji (The Back Views)

The final 10 prints are referred to as Ura-Fuji (literally "Fuji from the back," because many depict the mountain from less conventional western and northern perspectives) or Kura-ban (Black-Outline prints).

For these 10 extensions, Hokusai completely abandoned the blue outlines and returned to standard sumi black ink for his line work.

Changing the line colour fundamentally altered the spatial depth, contrast, and shadow behaviour of the images. Black outlines brought a sharper, more graphic punch to the foreground elements, grounding the everyday human activity with absolute clarity while allowing the background colours to pop in a totally different way.

Mount Fuji rendered in Prussian Blue vs Sumi (Above) in the later 10 print extension of 36 Views of Mount Fuji 

A Note for Collectors: While a blue outline definitively indicates one of the original 36 prints, it specifically marks early editions. Because woodblocks were printed on demand until the wood wore down, later 19th-century reprints of the original 36 sometimes reverted to black ink if the publisher ran out of the imported blue pigment. First states preserved at The Metropolitan Museum of Art show just how dramatically these original blue lines altered the mood of the paper before the color blocks were even applied.

A Shift in Terrain: The "Ura-Fuji" Aesthetics

The change from blue to black ink wasn't just an economic shortcut. It also reflected a profound shift in Hokusai's visual geography.

The initial thirty-six views focus heavily on the coastlines, rivers, and low-lying atmospheric mists surrounding Edo (modern-day Tokyo). In these environments, soft blue outlines blend seamlessly into the water and sky, matching the invisible kinetic energy of prints like Ejiri in Suruga Province or the towering foam of The Great Wave.

The extra ten prints are fundamentally different. Art historians refer to them as the Ura-Fuji (the "back views") or views from the rear of the mountain. These compositions take place further inland, featuring:

• Rugged, landlocked mountain passes
• Rural farming communities and rustic villages
• The raw, earthy labor of the Japanese working class

For these grounded, interior landscapes, soft blue outlines would have felt unnatural. Hokusai’s switch to a deep, graphic black sumi ink provided the heavy contrast and sharp graphic definition required to depict the rustic reality of the provinces.

Technical Comparison: The Two Eras of the Series

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it called 36 Views of Mount Fuji if there are 46?

The series was originally planned and published as a set of 36 prints. It became so wildly popular in the 1830s that the publisher, Eijudo, chose to add 10 more prints to capitalize on the commercial success, keeping the original, famous title for branding purposes.

What does "Ura-Fuji" mean?

Ura-Fuji translates to "Fuji from the back" or the "rear views of Fuji." It refers specifically to the final 10 prints added to Hokusai's series, which look at the mountain from the less-traveled, inland provinces rather than the common vantage points of Edo.

How can you tell a first edition Hokusai print from a reprint?

In the first printings of the original 36 views, the structural outlines are printed in a distinct, rich Prussian blue ink. Later 19th-century reprints of these same blocks often switched to standard black ink as blocks were replaced or costs were cut.

If you’d like a physical set of these prints to study on your own workspace, you can find it here.