Creator story
Surprising fact
Hokusai used over 30 different names in his life and claimed that only past 70 was anything he made worth counting — hoping to paint truly alive at 110.
Source: Wikipedia / WikimediaPrints and Graphics
Katsushika Hokusai
Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) was the Japanese master of ukiyo-e woodblock prints and creator of The Great Wave off Kanagawa — perhaps the most famous image in all of Asian art.
Hokusai's prints flooded into Europe and ignited Japonisme, shaping Monet, Van Gogh and Degas.
- Created The Great Wave, part of his series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.
- His ukiyo-e prints sparked Japonisme and reshaped European art.
- Worked obsessively into his late 80s, forever seeking to improve.
Key works
Two works that open the world of Katsushika Hokusai
These works make it easiest to see how the artist changed form, content, and the very way art could exist in culture.
c. 1831
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
The Great Wave off Kanagawa is a woodblock print by the Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (1760–1849), created in late 1831 during the Edo period of Japanese history. The print depicts three boats moving through a storm-tossed sea, with a large, cresting wave forming a spiral in the centre over the boats and Mount Fuji in the background.
1830
Fine Wind, Clear Morning
Fine Wind, Clear Morning, also known as Red Fuji, is a woodblock print by Japanese artist Hokusai (1760–1849), part of his Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series, dating from c. 1830 to 1832. The work has been described as "one of the simplest and at the same time one of the most outstanding of all Japanese prints".