Thursday, April 30, 2015

How did Chinese look at Mount Fuji in Edo Japan?



Only very few Chinese had chance to see Mount Fuji during the Edo period. Yinyuan was one of them. Another less known Chinese also saw Mount Fuji and even painted a picture. His name is Fang Ji 方濟, zi Xiyuan 西園. He was the associate shipmaster of the Chinese ship Yuanshun 元順 from Nanjing. The ship was drifted to Chikura千倉町 (in Chiba) in 1780 and Fang Ji saw Mount Fuji when he was escorted back to Nagasaki . It turned out that Fang was a well educated painter. This is perhaps the only Mount Fuji painting done by a Chinese. I included it in my book Leaving for the Rising Sun, p. 161.


No comments:

Post a Comment