Fuji under a Bridge (Kyōka no Fuji): Detatched page from One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku hyakkei) Vol. 3 c. 1835 - 1847

Curator: Hokusai's "Fuji under a Bridge," a detached page from his "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji," presents us with an intriguing visual puzzle. Editor: It's striking! The bridge dominates, a rigid horizontal slicing through the organic forms of the landscape. Almost claustrophobic. Curator: Absolutely. This work invites us to consider the symbolic weight of the bridge itself. It represents connection but also division, the human-made versus the natural. It is tempting to read this piece through a lens of social disparity and imposed constraints. Editor: Yes, and the bridge, often a symbol of passage, here seems to lead nowhere significant. It's more about the act of traversing, of moving between the known and unknown. That distant Fuji feels almost unreachable, doesn't it? Curator: It does. Hokusai encourages viewers to look critically at the power structures shaping their perceptions, doesn't he? Editor: Indeed. It really makes you think about how we all are constantly crossing our own bridges.