Hokusai. Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period.
Born in Edo, Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the internationally iconic print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Hokusai created the Thirty-Six Views both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji.
It was this series, specifically The Great Wave print and Fine Wind, Clear Morning, that secured Hokusai's fame both in Japan and overseas. As historian Richard Lane concludes, Indeed, if there is one work that made Hokusai's name, both in Japan and abroad, it must be this monumental print-series.
While Hokusai's work prior to this series is certainly important, it was not until this series that he gained broad recognition. 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 Horeki era to an artisan family, in the Katsushika district of Edo, Japan.
His childhood name was Tokitaro. It is believed his father was the mirror-maker Nakajima Ise, who produced mirrors for the shogun. 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, perhaps learning from his father, whose work on mirrors included a painting of designs around mirrors. Hok
Born in Edo, Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the internationally iconic print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Hokusai created the Thirty-Six Views both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji.
It was this series, specifically The Great Wave print and Fine Wind, Clear Morning, that secured Hokusai's fame both in Japan and overseas. As historian Richard Lane concludes, Indeed, if there is one work that made Hokusai's name, both in Japan and abroad, it must be this monumental print-series.
While Hokusai's work prior to this series is certainly important, it was not until this series that he gained broad recognition. 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 Horeki era to an artisan family, in the Katsushika district of Edo, Japan.
His childhood name was Tokitaro. It is believed his father was the mirror-maker Nakajima Ise, who produced mirrors for the shogun. 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, perhaps learning from his father, whose work on mirrors included a painting of designs around mirrors. Hok
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