Big Catch. Prosperity of the Whale. Triptych woodblock print by Kuniyoshi, circa
1847-52. This is the artist's paean to a humpback whale that came into Shinagawa Bay in 1798,
some fifty years earlier. The Shinagawa Whale, also known as the Kansei Whale because
according to the Japanese calendar it arrived in the tenth year of Kansei, was universally interpreted
as a good luck omen, and the Japanese proverb "One whale makes seven shores (seven
villages) prosperous" is often quoted in connection with it. The vantage point is carefully selected
to include in the background a view of Fuji-san (Mount Fuji), Japan's most portentous and
enduring good luck symbol; and cranes fly overhead, another unequivocal symbol of good fortune.
