Hokusai - Resources for Art Lovers

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Introduction to Hokusai

This lens is about Hokusai (1760-1849)and images of his 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 on Wikipedia 

was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. In his time, he was Japan's leading expert on Chinese painting.Daniel Atkison and Leslie Stewart. "Life and Art of Katsushika Hokusai" in From the Floating World: Part II: Japanese Relief Prints, catalogue of an exhibition produced by California State University, Chico. Retrieved 9 July 2007; archive link Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best-known as author of the woodblock print series which includes the iconic and internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s.

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.Smith 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 historian Richard Lane concludes, "Indeed, if there is one work that made Hokusai's name, both in Japan and abroad, it must be this monumental print-series...". While Hokusai's work prior to this series is certainly important, it was not until this series that he gained broad recognition and left a lasting impact on the art world. It was also The Great Wave print that initially received, and continues to receive, acclaim and popularity in the Western world.

Biography of Hokusai 

Artists in 60 Seconds: Katsushika Hokusai
A profile of Hokusai (1760-1849), Japanese painter, printmaker and draftsman.
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 - 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

BOOKS: Hokusai on Amazon 

Hokusai

Recommended reading by the Freer and Sackler Galleries

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Hokusai and His Age

Recommended reading by the Freer and Sackler Galleries

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Hokusai

Recommended reading by the Freer and Sackler Galleries

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Hokusai's Mount Fuji: The Complete Views in Color

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Hokusai and Hiroshige: Great Japanese Prints from the James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts

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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.

Hokusai in Museums and Art Galleries 

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 

Visipix
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.

ukiyo-e on Wikipedia 

'''' ( or ) is a genre of Japanese woodblock prints (or woodcuts) and paintings produced between the 17th and the 20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, tales from history, the theatre, and pleasure quarters. It is the main artistic genre of woodblock printing in Japan.

Usually the word ukiyo is literally translated as "floating world" in English, referring to a conception of an evanescent world, impermanent, fleeting beauty and a realm of entertainments (kabuki, courtesans, geisha) divorced from the responsibilities of the mundane, everyday world; "pictures of the floating world", i.e. ukiyo-e, are considered a genre unto themselves.

The contemporary novelist Asai Ry?i, in his , provides some insight into the concept of the floating world:

... Living only for the moment, turning our full attention to the pleasures of the moon, the snow, the cherry blossoms and the maple leaves; singing songs, drinking wine, diverting ourselves in just floating, floating; ... refusing to be disheartened, like a gourd floating along with the river current: this is what we call the floating world...Lane, Richard. Images from the Floating World. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky, 1978. p11.

The art form rose to great popularity in the metropolitan culture of Edo (Tokyo) during the second half of the 17th century, originating with the single-color works of Hishikawa Moronobu in the 1670s. At first, only India ink was used, then some prints were manually colored with a brush, but in the 18th century Suzuki Harunobu developed the technique of polychrome printing to produce nishiki-e.

Ukiyo-e were affordable because they could be mass-produced. They were mainly meant for townsmen, who were generally not wealthy enough to afford an original painting. The original subject of ukiyo-e was city life, in particular activities and scenes from the entertainment district. Beautiful courtesans, bulky sumo wrestlers and popular actors would be portrayed while engaged in appealing activities. Later on landscapes also became popular. Political subjects, and individuals above the lowest strata of society (courtesans, wrestlers and actors) were not sanctioned in these prints and very rarely appeared. Sex was not a sanctioned subject either, but continually appeared in ukiyo-e prints. Artists and publishers were sometimes punished for creating these sexually explicit shunga''.

VIDEOS: Hokusai on YouTube  


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