Hokusai: beyond the Great Wave (British Museum)

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Smith, Henry D. II (1988). Hokusai: One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji. New York: George Braziller, Inc., Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8076-1195-1. There has been a heated debate among specialists of Japanese art history in the past few days—about where [the collection] has been in the past 70 years and where it should belong now,” Ikeda explains. “I don’t see this as an issue about Hokusai’s drawings per se. This is a conversation fundamentally about the role of museums, the histories of which have been Western-centric and colonialist. … I still think it’s important that we have become so sensitive with the way in which museums are acquiring objects.” Brown, Kendall H. (13 August 2007). "Hokusai and His Age: Ukiyo-e Painting, Printmaking and Book Illustration in Late Edo Japan (review)". The Journal of Japanese Studies. 33 (2): 521–525. doi: 10.1353/jjs.2007.0048. ISSN 1549-4721. S2CID 143267375. Feltens adds, “Especially in the early-19th century, that longing for the exotic and the unknown became incredibly pronounced in intellectual circles.” In about the year 1812, Hokusai’s eldest son died. This tragedy was not only an emotional but also an economic event, for, as adopted heir to the affluent Nakajima family, the son had been instrumental in obtaining a generous stipend for Hokusai, so that he did not need to worry about the uncertainties of income from his paintings, designs, and illustrations, which at this period were paid for more with “gifts” than with set fees.

Hokusai inspired the Hugo Award–winning short story by science fiction author Roger Zelazny, " 24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai", in which the protagonist tours the area surrounding Mount Fuji, stopping at locations painted by Hokusai. A 2011 book on mindfulness closes with the poem "Hokusai Says" by Roger Keyes, preceded with the explanation that "[s]ometimes poetry captures the soul of an idea better than anything else." [48] van Rappard-Boon, Charlotte (1982). Hokusai and his School: Japanese Prints c. 1800–1840 (Catalogue of the Collection of Japanese Prints, Rijksmuseum, Part III). Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Who was Katsushika Hokusai?

Machotka, Ewa (2009). Visual Genesis of Japanese National Identity: Hokusai's Hyakunin Isshu. Peter Lang. ISBN 978-90-5201-482-1. On 5 October 1817, he painted the Great Daruma outside the Hongan-ji Nagoya Betsuin in Nagoya. This portrait in ink on paper measured 18 × 10.8 metres, and the event drew huge crowds. The feat was recounted in a popular song and he received the name " Darusen " or "Daruma Master" [20] [21] Although the original was destroyed in 1945, Hokusai's promotional handbills from that time survived and are preserved at the Nagoya City Museum. An energetic artist, Hokusai rose early and continued painting until well after dark. This was the customary regimen of his long, productive life. Of Hokusai’s thousands of books and prints, his “Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji” is particularly notable ( see photograph). Published from about 1826 to 1833, this famous series (including supplements, a total of 46 colour prints) marked a summit in the history of the Japanese landscape print; in grandeur of concept and skill of execution there was little approaching it before and nothing to surpass it later—even in the work of Hokusai’s famed late contemporary Hiroshige ( q.v.). Browse the Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow Collection of Japanese illustrated books at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Kleiner, Fred S. and Christin J. Mamiya, (2009). Gardner's Art Through the Ages: Non-Western Perspectives, p. 115. The earliest contemporary record of Hokusai dates from the year 1778, when, at the age of 18, he became a pupil of the leading ukiyo-e master, Katsukawa Shunshō. The young Hokusai’s first published works appeared the following year—actor prints of the kabuki theatre, the genre that Shunshō and the Katsukawa school practically dominated.Upon the death of Shunshō in 1793, Hokusai began exploring other styles of art, including European styles he was exposed to through French and Dutch copper engravings he was able to acquire. [7] 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. This event was, in his own words, inspirational: "What really motivated the development of my artistic style was the embarrassment I suffered at Shunkō's hands." [10]

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 [ja] district of Edo, the capital of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate. [4] His childhood name was Tokitarō. [5] It is believed his father was Nakajima Ise, a mirror-maker for the shōgun. [5] His father never made Hokusai an heir, so it is possible that his mother was a concubine. [4] Hokusai began painting around the age of six, perhaps learning from his father, whose work included the painting of designs around mirrors. [4] The most remarkable thing for me was that Hokusai was an amazing person himself: funny, artistic in every sense of the word, energetic, tongue-in-cheek. His personality is especially apparent through his letters. The technology of printing advanced rapidly as it became available to commercial publishers in the seventeenth century (before this printing had been the purview of temples). The rise of printed books (as opposed to those whose text and images were created by hand) throughout the Edo period (1615–1868) was closely associated with the growth of literacy, increased opportunities to travel, and people with time and money to spend on leisurely activities. Before the Edo period, literacy education was largely limited to elites in the warrior class or aristocracy. As non-elites began to acquire wealth, and education became available through terakoya from the seventeenth century onward, the increased literacy rate allowed non-elites to enjoy books as well, and laid the groundwork for publishers to cultivate a readership hungry for new genres.

Hokusai had a broad impact in his own lifetime and subsequently, with his influence spanning to the present day. Within Japan, his contributions moved Ukiyo-e from focusing on scenes of city life to landscapes and led to greater experimentation and change in approaches to perspective; Hokusai's approach was continued by Utagawa Hiroshige, who produced a direct homage to Hokusai's Fujimigahara in Owari Province, entitled Barrel-maker, Copied from a Picture by Old Master Katsushika, in 1836 and Kobayashi Kiyochika, who represented late nineteenth century industrialization through use of similar techniques. Hiroshige was influenced by Hokusai's practice of depicting the landscape in series, but differentiated himself through prints that were more loosely composed, with an emphasis on depicting nature as it appeared. I would love to see an impression of Hokusai’s delicately coloured print hung next to Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, painted just over a decade previously, in which a similar large wave is about to crash down on frail humanity. The contrast, and extreme modernity of Hokusai’s print, was certainly on the mind of those post-impressionist painters who so admired his work. You can still see prints by Hokusai, alongside Utamaro and Hiroshige, lining Monet’s dining room at Giverny; Rodin and Van Gogh were also enthusiastic collectors. Despite his appeals to heaven for “yet another decade—nay, even another five years,” on the 18th day of the fourth month of the Japanese calendar “the old man mad with painting,” as he called himself, breathed his last. He was 89 but still insatiably seeking for an ultimate truth in art—as he had written 15 years earlier:

Morse, Peter (1989). Hokusai: One Hundred Poets. George Braziller, New York. ISBN 978-0-8076-1213-2. The French composer Claude Debussy's tone poem La Mer, which debuted in 1905, is believed to have been inspired by Hokusai's print The Great Wave. The composer had an impression of it hanging in his living room and specifically requested that it be used on the cover of the published score, which was widely distributed, and the music itself incorporated Japanese-inflected harmonies. [45] Hokusai is often categorised as an artist of the Floating World ( ukiyo), a reference to the Edo period's (1615–1868) distinctive world of the theatre, pleasure quarters and popular culture. But he was much more. He was a sympathetic observer of contemporary society, a synthesiser of East Asian and European painting techniques, and a teacher who shared his joy as an artist in dozens of manuals on drawing and painting. This image is a particularly impressive example of the erotic genre known as 'shunga,' which translates literally to the euphemistic 'pictures of spring,' which was particularly popular in the nineteenth century. The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife was and continues to be popular primarily due to Hokusai's skill in capturing female pleasure, with the open position of the woman's body, her reclining head, closed eyes and open mouth evoking her sense of abandon and inspiring viewers' own flights of fantasy. As well as offering the unique chance to study Hokusai's masterful brushwork directly, the show shone a light on the last chapter of the artist's career and life, uncovering a restless talent that burned brightly into his final years.Hokusai firmly believed that he would improve as an artist as he grew older and posthumous critics have agreed that this was the case. In 1830, he published Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, pushing Ukiyo-e in the direction of landscape, and in 1831 published One Hundred Ghost Stories. He changed his name, at this point, to Iitsu, meaning "one year old," emphasizing this period as a time of metaphorical rebirth. He continued to experiment and adapt to new styles and was very successful professionally. Hokusai signed his Thirty-Six Views with the name Iitsu, adding for clarification that he was “the former Hokusai”. It was common in Japan, as in China, for artists to adopt different names throughout their careers, marking different stages of life, and perhaps also as a way of refreshing the brand. He adopted the name Hokusai (“North Studio”) in his late 40s, when he became an independent artist, leaving his teaching job and striking out on his own. Thompson, Sarah E. (2019). Hokusai's landscapes: the complete series (Firsted.). Boston: MFA publications Museum of fine arts. pp.167–203. ISBN 978-0-87846-866-9. The acquisition comes amid growing conversations about Western museums’ ownership of other cultures’ artworks, especially collections that were acquired through colonialism. Fordham University art historian Asato Ikeda tells Atlas Obscura that the global circulation of Japanese artworks is complex because the country exported artwork as a way to gain soft power around the world. Hokusai also changed the subjects of his works, moving away from the images of courtesans and actors that were the traditional subjects of ukiyo-e. Instead, his work became focused on landscapes and images of the daily life of Japanese people from a variety of social levels. This change of subject was a breakthrough in ukiyo-e and in Hokusai's career. [7] Middle period [ edit ] Image of bathers from the Hokusai Manga Contemporary print of Hokusai painting the Great Daruma in 1817 The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Hokusai's most famous print, the first in the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, c. 1829–1832 Fine Wind, Clear Morning (or Red Fuji),