Hokusai
Japanese ukiyo-e master of the Edo period, creator of The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
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Hokusai was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. His woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji includes the iconic print The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Hokusai was instrumental in developing ukiyo-e from a style of portraiture largely focused on courtesans and actors into a much broader style of art that focused on landscapes, plants, and animals. His works had a significant influence on Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet during the wave of Japonisme that spread across Europe in the late 19th century.
Lore & Background
Hokusai's date of birth is unclear, but is often stated as the 23rd day of the 9th month of the 10th year of the Hōreki era (in the old calendar, or 31 October 1760) to an artisan family, in the Katsushika district of Edo. It is believed his father was Nakajima Ise, a mirror-maker for the shōgun. His father never made Hokusai an heir, so it is possible that his mother was a concubine. Hokusai began painting around the age of six.
According to an account by his niece Shiraï Tati, Hokusai was born in the Warigesui quarter of the Honjo district into the Kawamura family as the third son of Kawamura Ichi Roemon. At the age of 12, his father sent him to work in a bookshop and lending library. At 14, he worked as an apprentice to a woodcarver, until the age of 18, when he entered the studio of Katsukawa Shunshō.
After a year, Hokusai was dubbed Shunrō by his master. Upon the death of Shunshō in 1793, Hokusai began exploring other styles of art, including European styles. He was soon expelled from the Katsukawa school by Shunkō, the chief disciple of Shunshō, possibly due to his studies at the rival Kanō school. Hokusai was known by at least thirty names during his lifetime.
Reader's Guide
Hokusai created the monumental Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji as a response to a domestic travel boom in Japan and as part of a personal interest in Mount Fuji. It was this series, specifically, The Great Wave off Kanagawa and Fine Wind, Clear Morning, that secured his fame both in Japan and overseas. Hokusai was best known for his woodblock ukiyo-e prints, but he worked in a variety of mediums including painting and book illustration.
Starting as a young child, he continued working and improving his style until his death, aged 88. In a long and successful career, Hokusai produced over 30,000 paintings, sketches, woodblock prints, and images for picture books. Innovative in his compositions and exceptional in his drawing technique, Hokusai is considered one of the greatest masters in the history of art.
Did You Know?
- His youngest daughter Ei, also known as Ōi, eventually became an artist and his assistant.
- Hokusai once created an enormous portrait of the Buddhist prelate Daruma, said to be 200 square meters, using a broom and buckets of ink.
- His most famous erotic image is The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife, from a three-volume book of shunga from 1814.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Hokusai's most famous artwork?
His signature print is The Great Wave off Kanagawa, a single image from the Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji series showing a massive wave looming over small fishing boats with Mount Fuji in the background. It has become one of the most instantly recognizable pictures in all of Japanese art.
How did Hokusai change ukiyo-e?
Before Hokusai, ukiyo-e prints largely focused on courtesans and Kabuki actors, but he pushed the medium into landscapes, plants, and animals. That expansion helped turn landscape into a first-class subject within Japanese printmaking.
Did Hokusai influence Western art?
Yes—his prints spread across Europe in the late 19th century during the Japonisme wave and left a clear mark on painters such as Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet. Van Gogh, for example, directly copied several Hokusai compositions and absorbed the Japanese artist's bold, flat color contrasts.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Hokusai (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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