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HOKUSAI (r 76o–1849)

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 577 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HOKUSAI (r 76o–1849) , the greatest of all the See also:Japanese painters of the Popular School (Ukiyo-ye), was See also:born at Yedo (See also:Tokyo) in the 9th See also:month of the loth See also:year of the See also:period Horeki, i.e. See also:October-See also:November 176o. He came of an See also:artisan See also:family, his See also:father having been a See also:mirror-maker, Nakajima Issai. After some practice as a See also:wood-engraver he, at the See also:age of eighteen, entered the studio of Katsugawa Shunsho, a painter and designer of See also:colour-prints of considerable importance. His disregard for the See also:artistic principles of his See also:master caused his See also:expulsion in 1785; and thereafter—although from See also:time to time Hokusai studied various styles, including especially that of Shiba Gokan, from whom he gained some fragmentary knowledge of See also:European methods—he kept his See also:personal See also:independence. For a time he lived in extreme poverty, and, although he must have gained sums for his See also:work which might have secured him comfort, he remained poor, and to the end of his See also:life proudly described himself as a See also:peasant. He illustrated large See also:numbers of books, of which the See also:world-famous Mangwa, a pictorial See also:encyclopaedia of Japanese life, appeared in fifteen volumes from 1812 to 1875. Of his colour-prints the " See also:Thirty-six Views of See also:Mount See also:Fuji " (the whole set consisting of See also:forty-six prints) were made between 1823 and 182g; " Views of Famous See also:Bridges" (I I), " Waterfalls " (8), and " Views of the Lu-chu Islands " (8), are the best known of those issued in See also:series; but Hokusai also designed some superb broadsheets published separately, and his surimono (small prints made for See also:special occasions and ceremonies) are unequalled for delicacy and beauty. The " See also:Hundred Views of Mount Fuji " (1834–1835), 3 vols., in monochrome, are of extraordinary originality and variety. As a painter and draughtsman Hokusai is not held by Japanese critics to be of the first See also:rank, but this See also:verdict has never been accepted by Europeans, who See also:place him among the greatest artists of the world. He possessed See also:great See also:powers of observation and characterization, a singular technical skill, an unfailing See also:gift of See also:good See also:humour, and untiring See also:industry. He was an eager student to the end of his See also:long life, and on his See also:death-See also:bed said, " If See also:Heaven had See also:lent me but five years more, I should have become a great painter." He died on the loth of May 1849.

See E. de See also:

Goncourt, Hokousab (1896); M. Revon, Etude sur Hokusai (1896); E. F. Fenollosa, See also:Catalogue of the See also:Exhibition of Paintings by Hokusai at T61:yo (1901); E. F. See also:Strange, Hokusai (1906). (E. F.

End of Article: HOKUSAI (r 76o–1849)

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