Fuji through a Web (Ami ni hedataru Fuji): Detatched page from One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku hyakkei) Vol. 3 c. 1835 - 1847

Editor: This is "Fuji through a Web" by Hokusai, from his "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji." I’m struck by how the spider web, rendered with such precision, both obscures and frames the distant mountain. What symbolic weight does the web carry here? Curator: Consider the web as a symbol of both entrapment and connection. The spider, often a trickster figure in folklore, weaves a world. Is Fuji then, an unattainable ideal, seen only through this constructed reality? Or is the web a metaphor for our own limited perspectives? Editor: That's a great question. I like the way the mountain is depicted far away as an unattainable ideal. Curator: The fragility of the leaf caught in the web contrasts beautifully with the eternal presence of Fuji, doesn't it? Editor: I do see the contrast now. It's interesting how Hokusai invites us to contemplate the transient versus the timeless. Curator: Indeed. It's about seeing beyond immediate confines to glimpse enduring truths.