Here’s an extremely witty, lyrical accessible Japanese artist from Japan’s Edo period. Katsushika Hokusai / 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849) was an artist of the uyiko-e / 浮世絵 school of painters. Uyiko-e means, literally, “pictures of the floating world.” They are mostly woodblock prints and paintings.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Hokusai was enamored of the artists’ practice common at the time to take a series of names–in fact, he took many more names than was customary. He was best known for his views of Mt. Fuji. This shot, the first in the collection Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji, is perhaps his most famous.
The Dragon of Smoke Escaping from Mt Fuji
Hokusai cultivated a personal obsession with Mt. Fuji. Religious beliefs at the time considered Mt. Fuji the source of the secret of immortality.
Travellers Crossing the Oi River
Hokusai was born into an artisan family; his father was most probably a mirror-maker for shogun. At 12, he was sent to work in a bookshop and lending library. At 14, he apprenticed with a wood carver, and from there he was accepted into the studio of a Uyiko-e artist.
Sumida River Seen from Azuma Bridge
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. He was expelled from his studio, an event he considered inspirational. He said, “”What really motivated the development of my artistic style was the embarrassment I suffered at [my master's] hands.”
Self-Portrait at the Age of Eighty-Three
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.
People Crossing an Arched Bridge
Though his subjects are the everyday and the ordinary, they all project a lyrical evanescence that draws me right in.
Village by a Bridge
About his aging and gradual diminishment, Hokusai had this to say:
“From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life.”
Ancient View of Yatsuhashi in Mikawa Province
“I became an artist, and from fifty on began producing works that won some reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was worthy of attention.”
Hanging-Cloud Bridge at Mount Gyodo near Ashikaga
“At seventy-three, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow.”
Head of an Old Man
“If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am eighty-six, so that by ninety I will have penetrated to their essential nature.”
Stage Properties for a Farewell Performance
“At one hundred, I may well have a positively divine understanding of them, while at one hundred and thirty, forty, or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive.”
Fishing by Torchlight in Kai Province
“May Heaven, that grants long life, give me the chance to prove that this is no lie.”
Wow. Here are a few more prints; see many more at my sources, www.wikipedia.org and especially www.katsushikahokusai.org.
And if you’ve got a fire burning in you, don’t wait. Let it out now, so that you won’t need to hanker after immortality.
Three Ladies by a Well
Begging for Alms
The Strong Oi Pouring Sake
Get to Japan! For details, see www,kcpinternational.com. Cheers!
The one book you NEED to come to Japan
