November's image

In the hallway hangs our 2016 calendar. This year’s has pictures of Japanese woodblocks.

As usual on Sunday we turned the page to the next month, November. Ever since I find myself waylaid by the image there. It is entitled “South Wind, Clear Sky (‘Red Fuji’) (detail) from Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, c. 1831” by Katsushika Hokusai.

The detail is just of Mount Fuji with a bit of clouded sky above, & two toned blue, I would say, pine forested land below. Fuji itself is golden sand coloured with a white snow cap, little more than a thin line of white, seeping downwards. It’s an apparently simple image & yet it fascinates & absorbs. Fuji glows out of the darkness both of the image & our hallway.

My intrigue is heightened by the verse below which reads:

          “Deep in the mountains,

          beyond the knowledge of spring,

          on a pine bough door

          there are faintly suspended

          beads of liquid snow.” (Untitled by Yosano Hiroshi)

I find the idea of liquid snow wonderful. And for that matter, something being the knowledge of spring.

Each day as I pass the calendar my spirits are lifted. A bit of me glows along with Mount Fuji.