Page:Through the torii (IA throughtorii00noguiala).pdf/210

 Although Hokusai was a great artist (though he may not have been so great an artist as the pedestrian critics, mostly Europeans, think he is) he was at last a victim of the vulgar subject of Fuji Mountain; even his famous (famous in the West) Fuji in Lightning is a failure, because the picture has hardly anything except audacity in colour. When I turn over the pages of “One Hundred Views of Fuji,” I always ask myself how much of the real mountain would be left if you took our Hokusai himself; when he entered into true Nature he was indeed great; when he left Nature for art, he was often mere artisan Hokusai. In one word, he was vulgar; and not only in his art, also in his act and manner he cultivated his vulgarity. Worse still, he is much prized in the West for his vulgarism. I should like to know who among Japanese artists ever succeeded with Fuji Mountain; I am glad that Hiroshige, unlike Hokusai, did not much draw that mountain. I hear one old artist, although I forget his name, who never painted Fuji in his life; what a distinction for that artist. Rh