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Chapter 2  Accurate recording of views

1. “One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji” by Osamu Dazai

Osamu Dazai (太宰治), a well-known writer in the Taisho and Showa eras, wrote as follows at the beginning of his essay, One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji[1].

“The apex angles of Mount Fuji in the paintings of Hiroshige (廣重) and Buncho (文晁) are 85 and about 84 degrees, respectively, whereas If you make cross sections of the mountain upon the survey drawings by the Imperial Army, the apex angles across the west to east and north to south will be 124 and 117 degrees, respectively. In most paintings of Mt Fuji, not only of Hiroshige and Buncho, the apex angle is sharp, and the summit is narrow, high and slim. As far as the painting of Hokusai (北齋) is concerned, the apex angle depicted is as narrow as about 30 degrees, like the Eiffel Steel Tower. In reality, Fuji is not an outstanding high mountain, as the apex angles measured are as obtuse as 124 and 117 degrees, across the west to east and north to south, respectively. I would not be so surprised if I were picked up by an eagle and dropped on the coast near Numazu, Japan, and incidentally saw this mountain. Fuji-yama of Nippon is wonderful because you adore it. This mountain will not be so appealing if you did not know such common propaganda at all and you had a simple, pure and hollow mind. It’s low for a mountain with a wide base. A mountain with such a wide base must be at least one and a half times taller.”

It is interesting to imagine that Osamu Dazai, who looks to be decadent in his portrait, was preparing cross-sections of Mount Fuji by placing a ruler on a contour map and measuring the apex angle on paintings by means of a protractor under an electric lamp.

It is a little presumptuous to comment on what was written by a great writer, but it is undeniable that the above passage contains self-contradiction. Whilst in the upper part Dazai criticised the fact that artists emphatically drew the peak of Mount Fuji sharper than that actually was, he concluded, “A mountain with such a wide base must be at least one and half times taller.”

It may not be good conduct to verify the results written in a literary work, but I dared to do it because of my habit of having engaged in scientific research in the past. The topographic map was created with the latest GIS (geographic information system) data and the analysis of the apex angle was done semi-manually on CorelDraw, as shown in Fig.1.

Fig.1 The contours of Mt. Fuji prepared on QGIS (prepared October 2022).

The values of the apex angle of Mount Fuji obtained were 124.０±0.5°and 121.０±0.5°, across the west to east and north to south, respectively: The former agreed with the value of Dazai but the latter was a little bigger.

The paintings of Hiroshige Utagawa (歌川廣重), Buncho Tani (谷文晁) and Hokusai Katsushika (葛飾北齋), which Dazai had subjected for the measurement of apex angles (84°, 85° and 30°, respectively), are unknown. Thus, paintings of those artists were arbitrarily picked up to analyse the angles gained on CorelDRAW. The results confirmed the Dazai’s observation that they had depicted Mount Fuji sharper than it actually was, as shown in Fig.2.

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Fig.2 The apex angles of Mount Fuji by painters mentioned in Osamu Dazai’s One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji.

(1) Suruga Fuji Lake (駿河富士沼) in the Thirty Six Views of Fuji , by Hiroshige Utagawa (歌川廣重) 1852[2]; (2) Fuji (富士山) by Buncho Tani (谷文晁) 1802[3]; (3) Fuji in deep snow (深雪の不二) in the One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, by Hokusai Katsushika (葛飾北齋)[4]; (4) A dragon cross-over the Fuji (富士越龍圖), by Hokusai Katsushika (葛飾北齋) 1849[5].

For reference, the apex angle of Mount Fuji measured on a photograph taken from the due north shore of Lake Kawaguchi, which is located to the north of the mountain, was 124.0°, agreeing with that obtained from the GIS Topographic Data. See, Fig.3.

Fig.3 The apex angle of Mt. Fuji in a photograph taken from the shore of Lake Kawaguchi that is located to the north of the mountain (Photo taken by the present writer 2015.04.24.)

Then, the works of several modern artists were investigated (Fig.4).

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Fig.4 The apex angle of Mt. Fuji in the paintings painted by modern artists.

(1) Godly Mt. Fuji (神嶽不二山) by Daikan Yokoyama, 1940, paper-coloured[6]; (2) Mitsuhama Fuji (三津浜富士の圖), by Ryuzaburo Umehara (梅原龍三郎) 1949, 855×985, o/c[7]; (3) Koizumi Fuji (小泉富士) , by Ikuo Hirayama, 2005, paper-coloured, 80.3×116.7[8]; (4) Golden Mount Fuji (金富士の柵), Shiko Munakata, woodcut[9]. (5) Praising Mount Fuji - Red Fuji (富嶽頌・赤富士の柵), woodcut[10]; (6) Fuji (富士) , by Yayoi Kusama (草間彌生) 1982, acrylic- collage, 15.8×22.7[11].

The apex angle of Ikuo Hirayama (平山郁夫)’s work was 122.5°, only 1.5° smaller than that of the photograph. The painting of Yokoyama Daikan (横山大觀) was similar to this, but in the works of other artists, the height was significantly emphasized. In the work of Yayoi Kusama (草間彌生) in particular, Mount Fuji was drawn extremely sharp, truly like the Eiffel Steel Tower.

The Island of Java in Indonesia has a multitude of volcanoes, almost as if the whole island is constituted of volcanoes. Without exception, the shape of volcanoes is Konide, or conical type, like Mount Fuji. See, Fig.5.

Fig.5 Volcanoes in Java and nearby islands (Prepared on QGIS by the present writer, November 2022).

Whilst the highest peak is Mt. Semeru (alias Mahameru, 3.676 m) in East Java, Mt. Merapi (2,930 m) to the north of Yogyakarta in Central Java is famous as a mountain that has been continuously erupting since recorded history. From the data of volcanoes including those in Bali, Ternate (Moluccas), and outer islands that had been gathered when I was studying the history and culture of Java in the past, I have sorted out the paintings and photographs of Mt. Merapi viewed from various directions and the apex angles were measured, as shown in Fig.6, 7 and 8.

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Fig.6 Mt. Merapi view from Borobudur to the west.

(1) A sketch by F. C. Wilsen (ca.1850)[12]; (2) A sketch (anonymous)[13]; (3) The sunrise at Merapi from Borobudur, The peak at the left (north) is Mt. Merbabu. Photo taken by the present writer (2004.6.19，5:34′32″)[14].

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Fig.7 Mt. Merapi view from Prambanan to the southeast.

(1) A sketch of Loro Jonggrang Temple at Prambanan by H. C. Cornelis. (1807)[15]; (2) A photo by Panoramio[16].

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Fig.8 Mt. Merapi view from Yogyakarta to the south.

(1) A painting by Walter Spies (1824)[17], part.; (2) Mt. Merapi from the south, painted by F.W. Junghuhn (1836)[18]; (3) Merapi, Eruption by Night, an oil painting by Raden Sareh (1965)[19]; (4) A photo from Hotel Inna Garuda, Yogyakarta[20].

Since Mt. Merapi bears a distorted conical shape, the apex angle varies depending on the place of observation. As seen above, the values measured on photographs taken from Borobudur, Prambanan Plain and Yogyakarta, which are located to the west, southeast and south, were 107°, 104° and 121°, respectively. Mentioning the results for individual paintings is avoided, but the one in which the summit was most narrowly depicted was Merapi, Eruption by Night (1865), Fig.8 (3) from Yogyakarta, painted by Raden Saleh, with the apex angle 87°. For reference, Raden Saleh Syarif Bustaman (1811–1880) was a nobleman who studied art in the Netherlands, called the father of modern painting in Indonesia.

In the works of other artists also, the summit was depicted narrower than it really was, but noteworthy is the sketch, Fig.7 (1), by H. C. Cornelis, a lieutenant and engineer, who engaged in the cleaning of soil-covered ancient ruins in Central Java by order of Lieutenant Governor Samford Ruffles during the time of the British Invasion of Java (1811-15). The apex angle of Mt. Merapi, seen in the sketch in the background of Loro Jonggrang Temple (included in Stanford Raffles’ History of Java) agreed with the value from the photograph, 104°. Before photography emerged, the skill of drafting, like that of Cornelis, was indispensable for recording images of things.

The above is the follow-up of Osamu Dazai’s observations. Regarding the shape of the mountain, the conclusion obtained from the present investigation is that, as he wrote, “Artists apt to draws mountains sharper than the actual image reflected on their retina to emphasise the height”.

Nevertheless, if one prepared cross-sections of the mountain cutting the contour map at various azimuthal angles, and measured their peaks, as in Fig.9, one would notice that the apex angle can not necessarily be the index to represent the steepness or the gentleness of the mountain. Such an alternative method as to simulate the pile of contour lines to an elliptic cone and calculate the deviation is conceivable, but I have put it off because such an index is academically not significant.

Fig.9 The relationship between the apex angle the cross-section prepared by cutting the contour map of Mount Fuji, and the azimuthal angle. Right is the reproduction of the contour map.

2. Koukan Shiba

Having drafted this chapter down to this point, I remembered Koukan Shiba (司馬江漢), whose real name is Kichijiro Ando (安藤吉次郎) or Shun Ando (安藤峻): an artist of the Edo Period. Although all I knew about him was that he was the originator of copperplate engraving in Japan, I was amazed to realise that he was a talent, a man of curiosity whom Prof. Satoru Ikeuchi (池内了) called “A Da Vinci of Edo” in the subtitle of his book[21].

In The Chronicle of Musashi and Edo (武江年表, Buko Nenpyo )[22], two relevant paragraphs have been found.

(1) Chronicle of Musashi and Edo - Revised Edition Vol. 7. - Events in the Kyowa Period (1801-1803)

“Ukiyo-e artist Harunobu Suzuki II (二代鈴木春信), who went to Nagasaki to learn Dutch paintings, returned to Edo and became famous, renamed himself as Shiba Koukan. The origination of etching copper plates in Japan is his contribution. Before then, paintings of the distant view of mountains and waters were called Ukie (浮繪), but it is not any longer.”

In his youth, he studied painting under Harunobu Suzuki, an ukiyo-e master. He learned about Dutch painting from Gennai Hiraga (平賀源内) before going to Nagasaki, and is said to have been acquainted with Shozan (曙山), or Yoshiatsu Satake (佐竹義敦), the lord of the Kubota Clan (久保田主藩), who established the “Akita Dutch Painting”, and his retainer Naotake Odano (小田野直武).

(2) Chronicle of Musashi and Edo - Revised Edition Vol. 8. - Events in the 2nd year of Bunsei Period (1819)

Koukan Shiba (司馬江漢) died on October 21st, aged 72, Buddhist name: Fugendoujin (不言道人). He painted Western paintings in Edo. He was also a man of literary talent, wrote an essay about his journey to Nagasaki and published The Travelogue to the West (西遊旅譚, Saiyuryotan).

Kintei (筠庭) said Koukan Shiba, a town painter, went to Nagasaki to study Dutch Painting, changed his name to Koukan, and appeared in Edo. He was also literate. In Saiyuryotan he wrote about whale fishing in quite a detail. Once, he asked the editor of The Buddhist Country Astronomy (佛國歴象編, Bukkoku Rekisho-hen)*, “Why do you argue about Hindu Astronomy, whilst even China has adopted Western Astronomy?” The editor was afraid, talked to Toueizan and published the right one. Having heard of it, Koukan was grateful. Interestingly, he disappeared but appeared again.

  [Note] The book was based on the Sumeru Cosmos Theory (Ptolemaic). The author was Fumon Entsu (普門円通, 1754 - 1834). Hindu Astronomy was based on a lunisolar calendar. Toueizan (東叡山) was (and still is) the the honorfic prefix of Ueno-Kwan-eiji Temple (上野寛永寺) in Edo.

Although Kintei Kitamura (喜多村筠庭) was an outspoken critic, as he severely criticised Hokusai[23], he seems to have been respectful and favourable to Koukan. If the present author is to supplement, Koukan, who was talented in painting and writing, was interested in a wide range of academic fields, including natural science, astronomy, meteorology, geology, and medicine, to name a few, and made various devices himself for measurements. He also learned the Dutch language from Ryotaku Maeno (前野良澤) through his relationship with Gennai Hiraga. Although some people say his Dutch was at the beginner’s level, he is supposed to have been competent. For instance, his publications,The Global Map of the World and The Abstract of Global Map of the World (Kwansei 4, 1792) that described the geography and geopolitics, The Theory of Dutch Astronomy (和蘭天説, Oranda Ten Setsu, Kwansei 8, 1796) that included the solar system, the occurrence of solar and lunar eclipses, etc. translate Dutch books precisely. As will be mentioned below, he conversed with Chief Marchant in Dutch at the Nagasaki Dutch Factory. The Global Map of the World is copied in Fig.10.

Fig.10 The Global Map of the World.[24]

The Travelogue to the West (西遊旅譚, Saiyuryotan, published in 1803), a travelogue of Koukan’s journey to Nagasaki, starting from Edo in April 1788 and returning in the next year, cited in The Chronicle of Musashi and Edo (武江年表, Buko Nenpyo), included a number of sketches of visited places drawn in detail, as if they were insertion figures of today’s scientific article. Four of them are shown in Fig. 11. As to the whale fishing, Koukan spent as many as 41 pages among the total of 248 pages.

Fig. 11 Sketches in The Travelogue to the West (西遊旅譚, 1803) by Koukan Shiba. From the left to the right; The view of Shijo from Sanjo Bridge; The Nagasaki Dutch Factory: The Office of Chief Marchant; Ikitsu Island (生月島): Details of various whales, Ikitsu Island (生月島): Meat storage, or the whale meat processing factory.[25]

His immense erudition about astronomy/meteorology and science was compiled and published in his books, The Illustration of Copernicus’s Astronomy (刻白爾(Copernicus)天文圖解, 1808) and The Theories of Universe (天地理譚, 1816), respectively.[26] 

The items which Koukan Shiba had contrived and prepared various items ranged, besides the copper plate, from Dutch coffee mill, donkerkamer (darkbox = camera obscura), orgel (music box), thermometer, barometer, ortofon (hearing aid) to zograscope. In fact, he was a dexterous man skilled in everything from metalworking to glass work. In the circumstances where sophisticated machines and refined materials were not available, made tools and searched for materials that fit his purposes. A Dutch coffee mill that remains to date is shown in Fig. 12. The thermometer and barometer which he made from calcite and filled with mercury are shown in Fig. 13.

Fig. 12 A Dutch coffee mill made by Koukan Shiba (Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology).[27]

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Fig. 13 (1) The thermometer and barometer prepared by Koukan Shiba illustrated in The Theories of Universe (天地理譚, 1816)[28]. (2) The illustration/explanation in The Illustration of Copernicus’s Astronomy (刻白爾文圖解, 1808)[29]. The right-end of the left-hand side figure is the explanation of Pythagoras’s Law.

In the area of medical science, he published The Vaccination Method (種痘傳法, Bunka 8 = 1813). The Dutch coffee mill that was useful for grinding nature remedies can be counted in this category.

Concerning paintings, he stated as follows in his Shunparo Essay (春波樓筆記抄, Shunparo Hikki Sho, 1811).[30]

A picture is not of value if the object is not truly depicted. Mount Fuji is a mountain that is not in other countries. One can see it in pictures. However, if a picture painted in a brushwork style does not resemble Mount Fuji, then it is not of interest. The Dutch method is the method to depict the truth. The Dutch method does not concern with the brushwork style, unlike in the case of Japanese and Chinese paintings. The method is to depict the truth, as if you step into mountains and rivers and see them. They have a truth-depicting-devise (camera obscura). One can depict anything with it. Then, artists never draw an object that they did not see. They never depict anonymous mountains and rivers.

Five colouring materials are prepared with drying oil, not glue water. Drawing a picture at the banquet for nobles is not practiced and brushing letters on a picture for fun is not the way in their country either. People of our country do not like to investigate everything. They do not like astronomy and geography, because they do not think deeply and they comprehend superficially. Such a criticism that I am different from the people of this country is absolutely wrong.

There are hundreds of artists in this country, Tosa School (土佐家), Kanou School (狩野家) and China Painting School, but they do not know how to depict Mount Fuji. There are a number of paintings of Fuji by Tanyu (探幽) but they do not resemble Fuji, only painted in a brushwork style.

China painting cannot depict the famous mountains and sceneries of Japan either. They paint an anonymous mountain and say “A mountain and river”. They do not concern about which scenery or which mountain, and paint a mountain and water as they like. This is the same as painting a dream. Is it not because those who paint pictures and those who see them both do not understand the truth?

According to Koukan, Tanyu Kanou (狩野探幽) is just nought. For reference, several paintings of Mount Fuji by Tanyu are shown in Fig. 14.

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Fig. 14 (1) Picture praising Fuji by Tanyu Kanou, paper-ink[31]; (2) Mt Fuji by Tanyu Kanou,103ｘ44cm[32]; (3) Mt Fuji by Tanyu Kanou (Matsuoka Art Museum)[33].

(4) Mt. Fuji by Naonobu Kanou (Tanyu’s younger brother)[34].

Indeed, as Koukan said, Western landscape paintings were drawn with the object in mind, whilst in Japan, there are shikishi (色紙, fancy paper of about 1 foot square) and hanging scrolls (掛軸, kakejiku) with pictures that were drawn without looking at the object. It was not until I read this Koukan’s comment that I realised this fact.

A picture of camera obscura found in a contemporary book, Answers to Questions about Dutch Matters - Bansui Night Tales (蘭説辨惑・磐水夜話, Ransetsu Benwaku - Bansui Yawa), by Gennai Hiraga (平賀源内) is shown in Fig. 15.

Fig. 15 The page about camera obscura in the Answers to Questions about Dutch Matters - Bansui Night Tales (蘭説辨惑・磐水夜話, Ransetsu Benwaku - Bansui Yawa), by Gennai Hiraga (平賀源内).[35] The translation of the text is as follows. “Question: What is the box-type instrument, made of wood and metal, in which a glass-made mirror is set, called here a Shashinkyo in Japan, used to reflect sceneries and figures? Answer: It is called a “Donkeru-kaamuru (donkere kamer = dark room)”. Some dilettanti make its imitation. It is a cleverly contrived, useful machine. It is the same as the Painting Mirror (臨畫鏡) of Huang Lu zhuang (黄履莊, a 17th Century in the Qing Dynasty).

Two beauties at veranda (縁側二美人圖) and An archery gallery (楊弓場圖) are shown, as examples, in Fig. 16.

Fig. 16 Two beauties at veranda (縁側二美人圖)[36] and An archery gallery (楊弓場圖)[37] by Koukan Shiba. The perspective, horizontal and vertical lines (added by the present writer) verify that both pictures are in accordance with the one-point perspective law. The first picture was allegedly drawn in Edo after the artist’s return from Nagasaki, since it is said to have been produced in the Meiwa Era (1764-1772). The second picture is supposed to have been drawn also around the same period.

Koukan himself painted a number of paintings of Mount Fuji. Fig. 17 shows one of the several pieces in The Travelogue to the West (1803) and an oil painting, Shichirigahama Beach in Kamakura, Sagami Country (相州鎌倉七里浜圖, Soushu Kamakura Shichirigahama, 1796).

Fig. 17 Left: Mt. Fuji viewed from Sainokawara at the lakeside of Lake Ashi illustrated in The Travelogue to the West (西遊旅譚, 1803)[38]. Right: An oil painting, Shichirigahama Beach in Kamakura, Sagami Country (相州鎌倉七里浜圖, 1796)[39].

Both pictures are drawn in perspective, but the apex angles of Mount Fuji measured were 101° and 110°, respectively, significantly narrower than the real value.

The figure of Koukan Shiba can be seen, for instance, in a self-portrait included in his own book, The Illustration of Copernicus’s Astronomy (刻白爾天文圖解, 1808), as well as The portrait of Shiba Koukan that an oil painting artist, Yuichi Takahashi (高橋由一, 1875-1876) painted with his respect to Koukan, shown in Fig. 18.

Fig. 18 Left: A self-portrait of Koukan Shiba in his own book,The Illustration of Copernicus’s Astronomy (刻白爾天文圖解, 1808)[40] . Right: The portrait of Shiba Koukan by Yuichi Takahashi (高橋由一, 1875-1876)[41] .

Among many books on Koukan Shiba published until today, I would like to choose two books, Having Lived in Two Mother-Countries (二つの母国に生きて, 1987), by Prof. Donald Keene, 1987[42]  and Shiba Koukan: The Unconventional Life of Da Vinci in Edo (司馬江漢:‘江戸のダ・ヴィンチ’の型破り人生), by Prof. Satoru Ikeuchi (池内了, 2018)[43], in both of which his personality and contributions were quite objectively written.

Professor Donald Keene wrote, in a section, entitled “A Western-style painter in Edo, Shiba Koukan” in the above-mentioned book, that “He was basically a painter but, at the same time, he was an introducer of Western science. He published several interesting books and essays. In his later years, he was like a philosopher” and stated, “I often think, if it were possible to invite just one Japanese person from the nether world and converse, then I would choose Koukan Shiba.”

In his other book,The Japanese Discovery of Europe, 1720-1830: Revised Edition[44], two paragraphs related to Koukan Shiba are found.

Not only in the matter of personal appearance were the Dutch considered to be very strange creatures; ... A daimyo once asked Honda Toshiaki how it was that the Dutch were nevertheless able to produce such fine articles. Honda answered wryly that even animals are capable of surprising skills. Shiba Kokan (1747–1818), …, replied to a similar query, “If what you say is true, human beings are not as clever as beasts.[45]

He recorded a visit to the factory director’s room: “There was a row of chairs, next to each of which was a silver spittoon standing about two feet high, looking like a flower vase. On the floor-matting was a rug with a flowered pattern, and a glass chandelier hung from the ceiling.” While Shiba was contemplating the room with faint distaste, the director came in, a long pipe in his hand, and greeted the Japanese. “Isn’t this a splendid place?” he exclaimed complacently. Shiba replied, “I am dazzled ...”[46]

According to Professor Satoru Ikeuchi, Koukan Shiba was a “town painter”. Whilst the painters of Tosa School and Kanou School received support from the Shogunate Government and local lords, he was a freeman with no patron throughout his life.

The conclusion of this article is as follows. In Japan, there is a tradition to respect “a person who works in one field” and thus multi-talented Koukan Shiba has been rarely discussed by scholars. Professor Yoshio Nakano (中野好夫), a prominent critic of the Showa era, dismissed him as an audacious and mythomaniac person.[47]

Although it is not in the scope of this article, the theory that Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido by Koukan Shiba had existed and that Hiroshige would have imitated it for his work was proposed in the 1990s, but there was no serious response[48]. This was probably because academia and art traders would be afraid of the depreciation of Hiroshige’s value.