About Hokusai - Japanese ukiyo-e artist

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Introduction to Hokusai

This lens is about the famous Japanese ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (1760-1849) and images of his art work in museums and art galleries, in online galleries and in books and videos.

It provided support for a project about Japanese Art in Making A Mark in 2008.

This included looking at the work of Hokusai and his use of wood-block prints (ukiyo-e) and influence on Impressionism.

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Hokusai - Self portrait as an old man

VIDEOS: Hokusai on YouTube

Katsushika Hokusai
by brendafohio | video info

1,602 ratings | 473,123 views
curated content from YouTube

Biography of Hokusai

Artists in 60 Seconds: Katsushika Hokusai
A profile of Hokusai (1760-1849), Japanese painter, printmaker and draftsman.
Hokusai - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Katsushika Hokusai (September 23, 1760 - May 10, 1849) was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period.
Hokusai
artelino - Biography of Hokusai Katsushika
Katsushika Hokusai and Japanese Art,
All about Hokusai, Japanese art, Japanese Waves painting, and The Great Wave, incl. rare paintings.

Katsushika Hokusai, Japan's best known artist, is ironically Japan's least Japanese artist. Japan's best known woodblock print, The Great Wave, is very un-Japanese. Welcome to the artist often known as Hokusai.

Hokusai (1760-1849) lived during the Tokugawa period (1600 to 1867). In a Japan of traditional Confucian values and feudal regimentation, Hokusai was a thoroughly Bohemian artist: cocky, quarrelsome, restless, aggressive, and sensational. He fought with his teachers and was often thrown out of art schools. As a stubborn artistic genius, he was single-mindedly obsessed with art. Hokusai left over 30,000 works, including silk paintings, woodblock prints, picture books, manga, travel illustrations, erotic illustrations, paintings, and sketches. Some of his paintings were public spectacles which measured over 200 sq. meters (2,000 sq. feet.)
HOKUSAI MUSEUM - The Life and Work of Hokusai
Ukiyo-e artist Hokusai is known to have used over thirty different art names during his seventy years of work. The chronological overview herein has been organized according to seven major periods including the time of Hokusai's apprenticeship for the Katsukawa School.
Hokusai - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Hokusai - encyclopedia article - Citizendium
Hokusai From Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium
LIFE Online: Top People - #86 Hokusai
TIME.com and LIFE Online review the past 1000 years and look to the future.
Katsushika Hokusai Ukiyo-e Gallery
Hokusai Katsushika (1760-1849)

Hokusai settled on landscape painting around 1798, apparently much inspired by engravings brought in by the Dutch. From this point in middle age, he avidly observed and sketched everything in the world about him, publishing the results, starting in 1814, in a series known as the Hokusai Manga (sketchbooks). During his lifetime, the series ran to twelve volumes.

From about 1823 to 1831, he was engaged in creating and publishing the epoch-making series of woodblock prints known as The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. These became masterpieces in the history of Japanese landscape pictures, and were considered to be most typical of this style of pictorial representation.

This series was accomplished when Hokusai was between the age of 64 and 72 and shows proof of his remarkable energy during his advanced years.
Hokusai: Biography from Answers.com
Katsushika Hokusai ( b Edo [now Tokyo], 1760; d Edo, 1849). Japanese painter, draughtsman and printmaker

Making A Mark - posts about Hokusai

MAKING A MARK: The influence of Japanese Art
MAKING A MARK: The elements of ukiyo-e
Hokusai (1760-1849) is erferred to as the First Manga Master and is certainly the most well known of the ukiyo-e masters
MAKING A MARK: Hokusai, Van Gogh and the iris paintings
The Getty Museum Irises is very reminiscent of woodblock prints of irises drawn by Hokusai - two examples of which are illustrated above.

Hokusai on iTunes

Weird I know - but I went and looked after Andreas' comment

Track Artist Album  
Hokusai Andreas Pfalzer Hokusai

BOOKS: Hokusai on Amazon

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36 views of Mount Fuji

This is probably the most well known of all the 'series' of landscape prints produced by Japanese artists

Hokusai: 36 Views of Mount Fuji
The series titled Fugaku Sanju Rokkei (Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji) is undoubtedly the better known work by Hokusai and of all Japanese woodblock print. The re-edition presented here was published by Tamamizawa,in the twentieth century.

BOOKS: Hokusai and Manga - books on Amazon

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Hokusai in Museums and Art Galleries

These are museums and galleries which own works by Hokusai. If you want to see them:
* Check before you visit to see if they are on display or
* search the online collection

MFA Boston - Hokusai
Collection of 1453 images - woodblock prints coloured with ink
Katsushika Hokusai: The Great Wave at Kanagawa (from a Series of Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji) (JP1847)
Object Page | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Great Wave at Kanagawa (from a Series of Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji), Edo period (1615-1868)

Related Timeline Content Japan, 1800-1900 A.D. Woodblock Prints in the Ukiyo-e StyleArt of the Pleasure Quarters and the Ukiyo-e Style Japan, 1800–1900 a.d.
Katsushika Hokusai, Shichiri-ga-hama [Beach] in Suruga Province, a colour woodlblock print
From the series 'Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji' (Fugaku sanj%u016B-rokkei)
Hokusai | Freer & Sackler Galleries
Online Exhibitions | Freer Sackler Galleries

Hokusai - Mad about painting (2006 exhibition)
HOKUSAI MUSEUM - Summary of the Museum Collection
Selected works from the Hokusai Museum collection.
Please click title or picture for a broader view of each work.
HOKUSAI MUSEUM - Obuse (central Japan)
ƒThe HOKUSAI Museum
[Japanese | English]
The Hokusai Museum opened in 1976 in Obuse, a town in central Japan. On-line display and brief descriptions of selected works from the Hokusai collection.
TOKYO NATIONAL MUSEUM Special Exhibition HOKUSAI
HOKUSAI Exhibition Heiseikan Tuesday, October 25 - Sunday, December 4, 2005
As the most famous Japanese artist, Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) immediately brings to mind the images of his justly famous Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji series. But actually, his amazing artistic skills led him to transcend styles and genres. Hokusai's creative genius continued unwavering until his death at the age of 90. This exhibition features approximately 500 works* spanning his 70-year career beginning from his debut in his 20s under the signature name of Shunro, through the paintings signed with the year of his death. The works from collections from Europe and the U.S. as well as Japan are divided into six chronologically defined parts to provide an overview of his creative accomplishments.

Online galleries of artwork by Hokusai

This is artwork by Hokusai which you can see online

Visipix - Hokusai
Nearly 3,000 pictures of Holusai - of indeterminate origin
The Bitter End / Art of the Edo Period
During the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1868), the shogun required that the daimyo (lords) and their samurai spend time in Edo (now Tokyo) during alternate years. As a result, a large recreation and entertainment industry grew in Edo, serving first the daimyo and their samurai, and later the growing populace of Edo itself. This industry was referred to as ukiyo --- the floating world.

Ukiyo-e, images of the "floating world" (everyday life), are the woodblock prints of old Edo. Ukiyo-e are the images of the floating world and of the pleasures therein. Typical subjects include pictures of bijin (beautiful women), kacho (birds and flowers), the kabuki theater, sumo, meisho (famous views), and scenes from history and myth as well as abuna-e and shunga (erotica).
Jim Breen's Ukiyo-E Gallery - Hokusai
Katsushika Hokusai is probably best known for his landscape pictures. By far his most famous works are his 36-picture set "Mt Fuji Views", produced in 1827. 10 supplementary prints were added over the following decade.

Reviews of work by Hokusai

Paean to a Mischievous Genius : The Many Faces Of Hokusai - International Herald Tribune
He was, and remains, a towering figure in his own country, his influence on Western art was enormous and his impact on graphic art worldwide was incalculable. He officially changed his name five times during his long career, but we have come to know him by just one of them: Hokusai.

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Making A Mark

Artist and author Katherine Tyrrell draws and writes about art for artists and art lovers.

Topics include: artists, art exhibitions, art blogs; art history; art techniques and tips; art business and marketing; art economy and making a mark with pastels, coloured pencils and pen and ink.

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Comments and suggestions

Let me know what you think - but please do not spam

ANYBODY can comment HOWEVER please note that:
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  • Toshidama-Gallery Nov 12, 2010 @ 4:00 pm | delete
    Hi, it's very good to see such a fine artist as Hokusai gaining exposure, maybe Japanese art lovers on Squidoo should form a group of some kind?
  • Andreas Pfalzer Sep 8, 2010 @ 3:57 am | delete
    As a german artist and composer, Katsushika Hokusai is my favorite japanese artist.
    I composed for him a musical homage. You can hear this worldwide! Go to iTunes. Go to Andreas Pfalzer. Go to Hokusai.
  • makingamark Sep 8, 2010 @ 6:25 am | delete
    I normally never ever allow comments like this - but I checked this out on iTunes and it's not bad!
  • iampersona May 6, 2010 @ 10:18 pm | delete
    Cool lens. I found out about Hokusai's 50 identities – really interesting analogy with branding. http://iampersona.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/let-your-experience-be-your-brand/
  • California_Dreamin Apr 3, 2009 @ 11:37 am | delete
    Hokusai is my favorite Japanese artist.
  • makingamark Jun 17, 2008 @ 11:39 am | delete
    Sara - if you feel knowledgeable enough to rate this site as "boring but OKish info" presumably you also knew some better sites? What a pity that you failed to name and share them with the other readers of this site!

    I'm struggling to find better websites so I'm afraid I find comments like this to be very tedious - and very boring! Next time please say how it can be improved.
  • sara nash Jun 15, 2008 @ 11:57 am | delete
    boring....
    but ok ish info
  • manpride Jun 9, 2008 @ 4:08 am | delete
    Great lens on Hokusai and ukiyo-e.

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makingamark

I'm an artist and writer who enjoys sharing information about art. Making A Mark is rated #3 in the top 25 UK art blogs. I'm also a member of the Giants... more »

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Amazon Spotlight 

Hokusai: Prints and Drawings

Amazon Price: $9.49 (as of 06/01/2012)Buy Now

This volume includes full-color reproductions of drawings and woodblock prints by Japan's most beloved artist. These landscapes-including his famous views of Mount Fuji- portraits of lovers and kabuki actors, nature and animal illustrations, as well as scenes of daily life in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Japan reveal the artist's genius for rendering a wide variety of subjects. Matthi Forrer discusses in his essay Hokusai's life and lasting popularity while placing his work within the context of Japanese society and the work of his contemporaries.

Japanese Artists 

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