Story: Japanese

This woodcut of Mt Fuji is by the 19th-century Japanese master Ichiryusai Hiroshige. The dramatic island landscapes of New Zealand and Japan have always inspired artists. British-born painter Christopher Perkins noted the similarity between the volcanic cones of New Zealand’s Mt Taranaki and Mt Fuji. He related the story of the crew from a Japanese ship anchored at New Plymouth, who made ‘daily obeisance to the honourable mountain’, Taranaki.