Katsushika Hokusai
Japan, 1760-1849

Katsushika Hokusai (kah-tsoo-shee-kah hok-sigh) is considered the greatest
printmaker of the Japanese Ukiyo-e (oo-kee-yoh-ay) style, or "pictures of the
floating world." His woodblock prints influenced a number of Impressionist artists in
the West, including Degas, Gauguin, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

From about 1825 to 1831, Hokusai published his brilliant series of Mount Fuji prints.
In spite of its title, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, there are actually 46 scenes
included in the series. These prints make use of bold lines and extended perspective.
In one print, The Great Wave at Kanagawa, Mount Fuji appears serenely in the
distance, while an enormous wave occupies the foreground. Several long boats are
overshadowed by the wave, and their angles accentuate the wave's lines. The
viewer's eye is drawn into the painting's space by these lines and by the use of flat
space in the sky above. It is this use of line and space that the Impressionists
admired and incorporated into their own works.

Hokusai was a prolific artist who produced more than 30,000 artworks in his lifetime.
These included illustrations for books, prints of actors, invitations, greeting cards,
and many landscapes, paintings, and prints. Despite this vast output, Hokusai was a
humble man.