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 All About Art
Hokusai: Pictures of the Floating World
published: October 2007
By Tamar Burris, Contributing Writer
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Katsushika Hokusai was an important Japanese artist, book illustrator and printer. His "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fiji" prints are some of the most famous Japanese landscapes.
Katsushika Hokusai was born in the fall of 1760 in Edo, which is now Tokyo. Although the artist was named Tokitar as a child, he changed his name many times and is best known as Hokusai. Interested in art at an early age, Hokusai began drawing the world around him when he was a young boy, and as a teenager he was sent to work for a woodcut engraver to learn how to make engravings.
In 1778, after working for the engraver for a few years, Hokusai became a student of Katsukawa Shunsho, a master ukiyo-e artist. Meaning "pictures of the floating world," Ukiyo-e is a style of traditional Japanese art showing pictures of ordinary life. Hokusai also began to master this style, publishing his first ukiyo-e prints in 1779 and continuing his work with Shunsho for almost 20 years. During this time, Hokusai made many prints of actors, ordinary people and landscapes.
When Hokusai was in his 30s, he started making surimono prints, which are like personal greeting cards. These prints have words on them and were specially made for people at New Years and on other occasions. Hokusai signed his surimono with the name Sori. In 1805, Hokusai adopted the name by which we call him, Katsushika Hokusai. Around this time, he started working on illustrations for books and created more brush paintings of women and landscapes. It was also during this period that he started becoming a well-known artist.
Hokusai had a long career, but his most famous artwork was created in his later years. Hokusai's "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fiji" prints were finished in 1833, when the artist was 73. And, Hokusai painted his last picture when he was 89 years old!
Hokusai died in April 1849 at the Henjoin temple in Asakusa. He left behind more than 30,000 works of art when he died.
Written by Tamar Burris, a former elementary school teacher who now works as a freelance writer and curriculum developer for PBS, the Discovery Channel and other education-related companies. Sources: Katsushika Hokusai on Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.org; The Life and Work of Hokusai, www.book-navi.com/hokusai; WebMuseum: Hokusai, Katsushika, www.ibiblio.org.
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