Hokusai Katsushika Red Fuji from Hokusai's series, 36 Views of Mount Fuji

Hokusai Katsushika October or November 1760–May 10, 1849 Katsushika Hokusai ( 葛飾北斎 ) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. In his time he was Japan's leading expert on Chinese painting. Hokusai is best-known for woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (1831) which includes the iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa, (~1820s – he was ~60) Hokusai created “36 Views" both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji (Mount Fuji has traditionally been linked with eternal life), that secured Hokusai’s fame both within Japan and overseas. Hokusai was born to an artisan family, in the Katsushika district of Edo, Japan Hokusai began painting around the age of six, possibly learning the art from his father, whose work on mirrors also included the painting of designs around the mirrors. Hokusai was known by at least 30 names during his lifetime, more then any other major Japanese artist. His name changes often related to changes in his artistic production and style By 1800, Hokusai adopted the name he would most widely be known by, Katsushika (part of Edo where he was born) Hokusai ('north studio'.). In 1800 Hokusai published two collections of landscapes, Famous Sights of the Eastern Capital and Eight Views of Edo. He also began to attract students of his own, eventually teaching 50 pupils over the course of his life. He became increasingly famous, both due to his artwork and his talent for self-promotion. During a Tokyo festival in 1804, he created a portrait of the Buddhist priest Daruma said to be 600 feet (180 m) long using a broom and buckets full of ink. Another story places him in the court of the Shogun Iyenari, invited there to compete with another artist who practiced more traditional brush stroke painting. Hokusai's painting, created in front of the Shogun, consisted of painting a blue curve on paper, then chasing a chicken across it whose feet had been dipped in red paint. He described the painting to the Shogun as a landscape showing the Tatsuta River with red maple leaves floating in it, winning the competitionShogun Iyenari Hokusai transformed the art form from a style of portraiture focused on the courtesans and actors popular during the Edo Period into a much broader style of art that focused on landscapes, plants, and animals.Edo Period Impressionists, including Monet, Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, enthusiastically embraced Hokusai’s work.

Courtesan Painting on silk Collection of Moshichi Yoshiara. The courtesan is almost buried the weight of her luxuriously textured and detailed kimono. Hokusai pays attention to precision and detail of the cloth. The important issue is the flattening of surfaces and the use of color fields. This became a major influence on Western artists in the late 1800s into the 1900s.

Bushu Senju in Musashi Provence. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”) 1823

Hokusai Katsushika The Breaking Wave Off Kanagawa. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”) The high point of Japanese prints. The original is at the Hakone Museum in Japan. Hokusai's most famous picture and easily Japan's most famous image is a seascape with Mt. Fuji. The waves form a frame through which we see Mt. Fuji in the distance. Hokusai loved to depict water in motion: the foam of the wave is breaking into claws which grasp for the fishermen - man’s vulnerability when faced with the power of nature. The large wave forms a massive yin to the yang of empty space under it. The impending crash of the wave brings tension into painting. In the foreground, a small peaked wave forms a miniature Mt. Fuji, which is repeated hundreds of miles away in the enormous Mt. Fuji which shrinks through perspective; the wavelet is larger than the mountain. In contrast to the fury of the ocean, Mt Fuji stands motionless and serene. Instead of shoguns and nobility, we see tiny fishermen huddled into their sleek crafts as they slide down a wave and dive straight into the next wave to get to the other side. The yin violence of Nature is counterbalanced by the yang relaxed confidence of expert fishermen. Although it's a sea storm, the sun is shining. To Westerners, this woodblock seems to be the quintessential Japanese image, yet it's quite un- Japanese. Traditional Japanese would have never painted lower-class fishermen (at the time, fishermen were one of the lowest and most despised of Japanese social classes); Japanese ignored nature; they would not have used perspective; they wouldn't have paid much attention to the subtle shading of the sky. We like the woodblock print because it's familiar to us. The elements of this Japanese pastoral painting originated in Western art: it includes landscape, long-distance perspective, nature, and ordinary humans, all of which were foreign to Japanese art at the time. The Giant Wave is actually a Western painting, seen through Japanese eyes. Hokusai didn't merely use Western art. He transformed Dutch pastoral paintings by adding the Japanese style of flattening and the use of color surfaces as a element. By the the 1880's, Japanese prints were the rage in Western culture and Hokusai's prints were studied by young European artists, such as Van Gogh and Whistler, in a style called Japonaiserie. Thus Western painting returned to the West. The Great Wave is from Hokusai's later years.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”)

Hokusai Katsushika Thunderstorm Beneath the Summit. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”) This is a pure landscape, similar to Red Fuji in composition. Hokusai offers a simplified image of Mt Fuji. Its almost abstract form and composition capture the essence of the mountain. In this simple, yet powerful, vision of Fuji, the work is enhanced by the artist’s use of blues and red-browns to create depth and shading. The lack of a human or animal form is unusual in Japanese landscape. Thunderstom is purely a landscape, evoking the mystery of nature. In this work Hokusai has darkened the foreground around a dramatic lightning bolt. The artist’s Thirty-six Views of Mt Fuji feature many different images of the mountain, in a variety of seasonal conditions. Through these images, Hokusai expresses the power of nature, and, in doing so, questions the relationship of man to the natural world.

Thunderstorm at the foot of the mountain.(“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”)1823

Mount Fuji seen from water wheel at Onden. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”)

Hokusai Katsushika Viewing Sunset over Ryogoku Bridge from the Ommaya Embankment. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”) This was one of a number of ferry crossings between the Sumida bridges. By the time Hokusai began his Mt. Fuji series, he was able to unify vast persepectives into calm paintings. Here, a boatload of passangers gaze at Mt. Fuji, in a quiet, plebian scene of ordinary people in their daily life. This realism is Hokusai's unique contribution to Japanese art. This print is from the 1840s, when Hokusai was already in his 70s and fully developed in his artistic skill. Hokusai experiments with diverse styles mixed Eastern tradition and Western techniques. To achieve this mix, Hokusai simplified the formal elements of composition, color and line.

The sunset view across the Ryogoku bridge from the bank of the Sumida River (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”)

Hokusai Katsushika In the Mountains of Totomi Province. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”) The location was in what is now the western part of Shizuoka Prefecture and shows a poor logging family, two of whom are sawing planks from a huge log supported by wood trestles. To the left another man is sharpening a saw. Smoke curles up from a fire and clouds encircle Fuji. One of the finest designs from Hokusai’s most famous series: Fugaku sanju-rokkei, the “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.” (published by Eijudo c ). An exceptional example of this design, printed, apart from light brown bokashi to the edge of the smoke cloud, in aizuri, Prussian blue ( Japanese: berorin, ie “Berlin” blue, from the place of manufacture ).

In the Mountains of Totomi Province. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”). 1823

Hokusai Katsushika Fuji seen from the second floor of the Mitsui clothing store just north of Nihonbashi. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”) This was considered a fine spot to view a snow-capped Fuji on New Year's Day Hokusai suggests New Year's Day with the kites being flown. The signs on the gateposts, left and right, state: "Payment in cash" and "No padded prices." Mitsui clothing store just north of Nihonbashi became the Mitsubishi department store of modern times

Fuji seen from the second floor of the Mitsui clothing store just north of Nihonbashi. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”)

Hokusai Katsushika Hodogaya on the Tokaido. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”) Before the time of Hokusai the realistic portrayal of a scene had not been a part of traditional Japanese art. The use of perspective, shading, and three-dimensional drawing, deriving from European art had an undeniable impact on non-traditional Japanese artists. They gradually included these elements of expression in their work. The use of realistic methods such as Western perspective had an undeniable impact on Japanese artists, especially of the Ukiyo-e school. In Hodogaya on the Tokaido Road, Mount Fuji is seen through a screen of twisted pines, planted to offer protection from the weather. In the foreground a lively group of travellers make their way from Edo, to the imperial capital, Kyoto. For Monet, a screen of trees framing a background offered interesting compositional possibilities. He explored these possibilities in his ‘Poplar’ series. Foreground and background are painted with little indication of the space between them. This seems to bring the background forward one moment, then push it back the next, helping to create a visually intriguing composition.

Hodogaya on the Tokaido. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”)

Nobuto Ura, Bay of Noboto (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”).

Shimomeguro, a rural village in Edo. (“The Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji”). 1823

The waterfall where Yoshitsun washed his horse, Yoshino, Yamato Provence 1832

The poet Li Po ( Japanese: Ri Haku ) admiring the Lo-shan Waterfall. (series of ten prints: Shika shashinyo, the “Poets of China and Japan.”) Doesn’t interpret specific poems. Published c Li Po is shown in deep contemplation of the waterfall, being held back from toppling over by two small acolytes.

Fighting Cocks. Painting on silk. Hakone Museum. Hokusai also did freehand paintings on paper and silk. Very few Japanese artists were able to work in both woodblock and painting. Note the rooster's very proud and aggressive stance.

Peonies and Canary Woodblock. National Museum at Tokyo. Before Hokusai, ukiyo-e artists such as Utamaro and Kunsai drew birds and flowers as illustrations in books. Hokusai was the first artist to make these bird-and-flower artworks primarily as prints

Hokusai Katsushika Sangi Takamura. Women diving for abalone. (“Hundred Poems Explained by a Nurse”) Woodblock. National Museum, Tokyo. This is from the late 1840s. A group of women dive for abalone. Women at the lower left are interlaced through waves and water.

Sangi Takamura. Women diving for abalone. (“Hundred Poems Explained by a Nurse”)