Hokusai

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Beneath the Great Wave off Kanagawa
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Beneath the Great Wave off Kanagawa[1]

Katsushika Hokusai, (葛飾北斎), (1760 — 1849[2]), was an Edo period Japanese artist, painter, printmaker and ukiyo-e maker. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best-known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, (published circa 1831), which includes the iconic and internationally-recognized print, 'Beneath the Great Wave off of 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 [3]. It was this series, specifically ‘The Great Wave’ print and 'Fuji in Clear Weather', that secured Hokusai’s fame both within Japan and overseas. As Richard Lane, author of "Hokusai: Life and Work," concludes, “Indeed, if there is one work that made Hokusai’s name, both in Japan and abroad, it must be this monumental print-series...” [4]. While Hokusai’s work prior to this series is certainly important, it was not until this series that he gained broad recognition and left lasting impact on the art world. Indeed, it was ‘The Great Wave’ print that initially received, and continues to receive, acclaim and popularity in the Western world. In addition to landscape prints, Hokusai is also considered one of the outstanding figures of the ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world" (transient pleasure-seeking, i.e., the world of theaters, restaurants, teahouses, courtesans and geishas), school of printmaking.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Katsushika Hokusai
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Katsushika Hokusai

Hokusai, whose childhood name was Tokitarō, was born in Edo (now Tokyo) on the 23rd day of 9th month of the 10th year of the period Horeki (October-November, 1760) to an artisan family [2]. It is believed his father was the mirror-maker Nakajima Ise, who produced mirrors for the shogunate[2]. At the age of fourteen, he became an apprentice to a wood-carver, where he worked until the age of eighteen, whereupon he entered the studio of Katsukawa Shunshō, a ukikyo-e artist and head of the so-called Katsukawa School [2].

Hokusai spent a total of 15 years in the Katsukawa School. Rumor suggests he was expelled from the school (possibly due to studies at the rival Kanō school); regardless, in 1795, Hokusai changed his nom d'artiste to Shunrō. This period was, in the word's of Hokusai, inspirational: 'What really motivated the development of my artistic style was my embarrassment I suffered at Shunkō's hands" [4]Shunkō was the senior disciple of Shunshō. "Fireworks at Ryōgoku Bridge"(1790) dates from this period of Hokusai's life.

Between 1796 and 1802 he produced perhaps as many as 30,000 book illustrations and color prints. He often drew inspiration from the Japanese ordinary life, traditions and legends. In 1824 he published the book New Forms for Design, and his designs have inspired many Sashiko quilting patterns. Hokusai's most typical wood-block prints, silkscreens, and landscape paintings were done between 1830 and 1840.

Although from time to time Hokusai studied various styles, he maintained stylistic independence thereafter. For a time he lived in extreme poverty, and, although he must have gained sums for his work which might have secured him comfort, he remained poor, and to the end of his life proudly described himself as a peasant.

He was an eager student to the end of his long life, and said on his deathbed, "If Heaven had lent me but five years more, I would have become a great painter." He died on 18th day of the 4th month of the year 1849[2].

After his death, copies of some of his woodblock prints were sent to the West, and along with the works of other ukiyo-e artists, influenced such Western masters as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin.

Katsushika Hokusai is generally more appreciated in Western culture than in Japan. Many works of Japanese printmakers were imported to Europe, especially Paris in the mid-19th century. They were collected and popular among impressionist artists as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, whose works bear signs of influence by Japanese art.

Perhaps his most recognized work is the woodblock "Behind the Great Wave at Kanagawa"(神奈川沖波裏 or Kanagawa oki nami ura) The scene is of a great wave about to devour the men and boats, with the distant Mount Fuji framed by the wave. It is said to be a snapshot picture of a day of labor; one can see surprised men on barges, carrying fish. The waves in this work are sometimes mistakenly referred to as tsunami (津波), but they are more accurately called okinami (沖波), off-shore waves.

[edit] Works

Hokusai had a long career, but he produced most of his important work after the age of 60. His most popular work is ukiyo-e series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景 Fugaku Sanjūrokkei), which was created between 1826 and 1833. It consists of 46 images (10 of them added later), but he produced outstanding pictures of almost every kind of subject - flowers, birds and scenery from legends and everyday life.

The largest of Hokusai's works is the 15-volume collection Hokusai Manga (北斎漫画), a book crammed with inventive sketches that was published in 1814. These sketches are often considered the precedent to modern manga, but modern scholarship suggests that the origins of modern manga cannot be accurately be attributed to Hokusai, even though he may have coined the term.

Hokusai's art was an important source of inspiration for many European impressionists like Claude Monet and American artist James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). The two artist's works are important in the permanent collection of Asian and American paintings at the Charles Lang Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, in Washington, DC, where they represent one of the earliest and most important compositions of Eastern (Hokusai et al.) and Western (Whistler et al.) aesthetics.

Both Hokusai’s choice of nom d'artiste and frequent depiction of Mt. Fuji stem from his religious beliefs. The name Hokusai means “North Studio (room),”(北斎） an abbreviation of Hokushinsai（北辰際）, or “North Star Studio.” Hokusai was a believer in the Nichiren（日蓮）sect of Buddhism. For Nichiren followers, the deity Myōken（妙見菩薩） was considered to be an incarnation of the North Star [4].

Mount Fuji has traditionally been linked with eternal life. This belief can be traced to the ‘The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,’ where a goddess deposits the elixir of life on the peak. As Professor of Japanese History Henry D. Smith II expounds, "Thus from an early time, Mt. Fuji was seen as the source of the secret of immortality, a tradition that was at the heart of Hokusai's own obsession with the mountain” [3].

Some ukiyo-e from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji:

2nd in the series, Red Fuji

45th in the series, Travellers Crossing the Oi River

Color on silk, hanging scroll:

The Dragon of Smoke escaping from Mt Fuji

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ from the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji) by Katsushika Hokusai. Color woodcut, 10 × 15 inches; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  2. ^ a b c d e Nagata, Seiji. "Hokusai: Genius of the Japanese Ukiyo-e." Kodansha International, 1995.
  3. ^ a b Smith, Henry D. II. “Hokusai: One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji.” George Braziller, Inc., Publishers, NY, 1988.
  4. ^ a b c Lane, Richard. “Hokusai: Life and Work.” E.P. Dutton, NY, 1989.
  • Forrer, Matthi. “Hokusai: Prints and Drawings.” Prestel-Verlag, Munich, 1991.
  • Hillier, J. “Hokusai: Paintings, Drawings, and Woodcuts.” E.P. Dutton, NY, 1978

[edit] External links

 Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Persondata
NAME Hokusai, Katsushika
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION Major Japanese woodblock print artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1760
PLACE OF BIRTH Edo
DATE OF DEATH 1849
PLACE OF DEATH Edo

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