Hokusai Katsushika, Master Impressionist

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), "the old man mad about drawing" (as one of his signatures had it) was one of the great masters - and one of the great innovative and creative geniuses - of the Japanese woodblock print, making the landscape print a major division of an art form that up until then had mostly focused on actors and bijin (Lane, 1989).

In addition, unlike almost all other ukiyo-e artists, (and most Japanese artists in general), his work has had a profound influence on art outside Japan. When his work reached Europe, it had a very significant impact on many artists, particularly the "Impressionists". (This was ironic turn of events, as he had been heavily influenced by the ideas of European art, particularly in technical areas like perspective.(Nagata, 1995)

He was born in Edo in 1760, apparently the son of a mirror artisan (polisher and decorator) named Nakajima Ise. He was originally named Tokitaro, but in about 1774 he was renamed Tetsuzo, and apprenticed to a wood-carver, where he worked until 1777. (His training as a woodcarver would stand him in good stead in years to come, when his experience in actual carving gave him a depth in the field of woodblock prints which most other woodblock artists lacked. Sketches of his are still extant with profuse instructions to the carver on them in his own hand.(Smith, 1988)

He then was apprenticed to the woodblock artist Shunsho of the Katsukawa school, one of the masters of the woodblock print, and by 1779 Hokusai was done with his apprenticeship, and was given the name Katsukawa Shunro by his master.

Like many other woodblock artists, Hokusai seems to have started work on book illustrations, and moved on to actor prints, and later bijin, all in the classic woodblock style. During this period he seems to have been heavily influenced by the most popular leading woodblock artist of his day, Kiyonaga, who specialized in bijin. In 1790, he produced a series entitled "Festivals of the Green Houses" (i.e. brothels), of street scenes, in which the first signs of the artist we now know as Hokusai appear.

Shortly thereafter, in 1785, he broke with his master Shunsho, and was apparently forbidden to use the name Katsukawa. The cause is unclear, but it may be linked to Hokusai's lifelong interest for new methods and techniques, a contrast to Shunsho, whose output varied little from the start to the ...