How does this relate to other Hokusai prints?

It's from the "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" series by Hokusai. While Red Fuji shows calm weather, this print captures Fuji's more dramatic, threatening moods.

Why is this print less famous?

The dark composition is harder to reproduce and fewer impressions survive in good condition. The Great Wave and Red Fuji were always more popular.

How big is the print?

It measures approximately 25 × 37 cm (9.8 × 14.6 in), the standard ōban size Hokusai used throughout the Fuji series.

What technique creates the lightning effect?

The zigzag lightning was cut as negative space in the woodblock, allowing the white paper to show through the dark cloud areas.

Where Is Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit? Museum Location

Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit shows Mount Fuji's dark peak rising above swirling storm clouds shot through with lightning. Created around 1831 by Katsushika Hokusai, this dramatic print contrasts sharply with the serene Red Fuji from the same "Thirty-six Views" series. The mountain dominates from an impossible vantage point, as if the viewer floated in the turbulent sky.

Hokusai showed Fuji in every weather condition and from every angle, demonstrating the mountain's many moods. Here, zigzag lightning illuminates the storm while the summit remains calm above the chaos. The composition creates tension between the mountain's eternal stability and the violent weather below. Dark clouds rendered in gradated printing add depth to the threatening sky.

This dramatic image is rarer than Red Fuji or The Great Wave, making good impressions particularly prized.

Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit

Details

The Artist

More by Katsushika Hokusai

Women walking in a garden

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

Inside the Courtyard of the Toeizan Temple at Ueno

Woman in an Interior

About Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit

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