Katsushika Hokusai Japanese artist, master of color woodcuts. Representative of the Ukmyo-e school. Country: Japan

1. Katsushika Hokusai: A Biography
2. Early Success and Independent Artist
3. Master of Various Genres
4. A Life of Travel and Sketches

Katsushika Hokusai: A Biography

Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese artist and master of color woodblock printing. He was a representative of the ukiyo-e school. Throughout his career, Hokusai created approximately 30,000 engravings and drawings, as well as over 500 illustrations. From the ages of fourteen to nineteen, Hokusai worked in an engraver's workshop, where he carefully studied the craft of carving and, imitating the drawings of clients, began to try his hand at making engravings. After leaving the engraver's workshop, he became a student of the renowned artist Katsukawa Shunshō (1726–1793).

Early Success and Independent Artist

Hokusai's talent and hard work were recognized, and he was granted the right to work independently after only two years. Within a short time, the young master's engravings featuring portraits of actors became highly popular. However, the narrow scope that limited his interests and creative potential did not satisfy him, so he left Shunshō and became an independent artist. Hokusai studied Chinese and European painting and drew inspiration from Japanese schools such as Tosa, Kano, and Rimpa. Throughout his long artistic journey, Hokusai was always critical of his achievements and constantly sought improvement, dedicating almost all of his time to his craft. The artist left behind a vast legacy of approximately 30,000 engravings, paintings, drawings, and about 500 illustrated books. He had around 50 pseudonyms, which reflected his intense creative work and relentless search for new styles and artistic expression. In 1806, he adopted the name Katsushika Hokusai, the name by which he entered the history of world art. Katsushika was a rural district in the suburbs of Edo (the old name for Tokyo), where the artist was born. The spirit of Katsushika accompanied him throughout his life, no matter where fate took him. Hokusai once said that he was born at the age of fifty, referring to the fact that he only reached the maturity of a master by that time. But even at the age of seventy-six, he was not satisfied with his accomplishments, stating, "My only goal is to become a great artist." He wrote that his "art will continuously evolve, and by the age of ninety, I will be able to penetrate the essence of art itself. At one hundred years old, I will create paintings similar to divine miracles..."

Master of Various Genres

Hokusai worked in almost all genres of engraving and is widely known to the public primarily as a graphic artist. However, he also created numerous painted scrolls, decorated screens, and executed several large-scale interior murals. One of these works is a vibrant decorative image of a Phoenix, which is preserved on the ceiling of a temple in the small town of Obuse in Nagano Prefecture. He also excelled in the smallest form of woodblock printing, called surimono. Hokusai is still considered an unsurpassed master of this genre. His surimono, especially those with humorous poems called kyōka, which began to complement the visual motifs from the late 18th century onwards, showcased his sense of humor and inventiveness. Hokusai is often referred to as a landscape artist, although this is just one facet of his creativity. It is in this realm that his individuality, philosophical depth, and human wisdom are most significantly manifested, combined with the highest artistic merits. Alongside Ando Hiroshige (1826–1869), he became the founder of the landscape genre in Japanese woodblock printing.

Hokusai's landscapes are usually populated by ordinary people working, resting, and wandering, to whom the artist feels a deep interest and respect. Even in the smallest works, he manages to convey a sense of grandeur, and even the simplest and most straightforward subjects acquire a generalizing quality in his hands. Examples of such series include "Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji," "Journey to the Waterfalls of the Country," "Poets of China and Japan," "Views of Famous Bridges," "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji," and "One Thousand Views of the Sea." Hokusai's book illustrations represent an important line of his work. He illustrated many kyōka books, both satirical and lyrical in nature. It was in this field that his fascination with landscape themes began. With the rise in popularity of yomihon (reading books) in the early 19th century, Hokusai continued his career as an illustrator, creating vivid, artistically imaginative, and captivating images that sometimes outshone the text itself.

A Life of Travel and Sketches

The period from 1812 to 1836 was marked by numerous journeys in Hokusai's life, during which he continued to work, making sketches of everything that caught his attention. In 1814, these travel sketches were compiled into the first volume of "Manga" ("Book of Sketches"), which was later published. Working on this publication can be called, without exaggeration, heroic. It consists of fifteen volumes, with the last three being published posthumously. The precise, well-captured sketches demonstrate that the artist was genuinely interested in everything: roadside scenes and mythological subjects, architecture and clothing, different types of people, plants, flowers, trees, capturing various poses and movements, and more. They were primarily intended for young artists as a teaching tool, but they caught the attention of a wide audience and brought the author fame.