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HOKUSAI
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Artist – Katsushika HOKUSAI (葛飾 北斎,
1760 – 1849) was a Japanese artist, painter and printmaker of
the Edo period, considered the great master of ukiyo-e. HOKUSAI had the longest career
of any of them - more than seventy years - and during this
time changed his style many times, making unique contributions
in all fields. As his art name 'Gakyojin' suggests, he was
indeed 'mad with painting'. Particularly fine are the
paintings and 'surimono' from his Sori period onwards; the
'kyoka' anthologies, illustrated books and Western-style
prints of his Hokusai period; the illustrated books and
painting manuals of his Taito period onwards; the series
'Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji' of his Iitsu period. "Sori" (宗理)
is a go name (art name) used by Katsushika
HOKUSAI from 1794 to 1798, when he passed it on to
his pupil Hishikawa SOJI. There is controversy over whether
certain works signed "Sori" should be attributed to HOKUSAI or
"Soji" ( "Sori")..
HOKUSAI was born in the Katsushika District of Edo (nowadays Tokiyo). Quite early, he was adopted by the NAKAJIMA (伊勢中 島) family of Ise. His father produced mirrors for the shogun. HOKUSAI began painting around the age of six, possibly learning the art from his father, whose work on mirrors also included the painting of designs around the mirrors. At the age of 12, he was sent to work in a bookshop and lending library, a popular type of institution in Japanese cities, where reading manga books was a popular entertainment of the middle and upper classes. At 14, he became an apprentice to a wood-carver, where he worked until the age of 18, whereupon he was accepted into the ukiyo-e studio of "Katsukawa SHUNSHō". SHUNSHō focused on images of courtesans and Kabuki actors who were popular in Japan's cities at that time. He studied at SHUNSHō's studio together with "Kano Yusen", "Tsutsumi Torin III", "Sumiyoshi Hiroyuki" and others. After a year, Hokusai's name changed to "Katsukawa SHUNRō" (勝川 春朗), when he was officialy accepted in Katsukawa SHUNSHō's studio.
HOSKUSAI's ("SHUNRō's") first woodblocks was a series of pictures of Kabuki actors, published in 1779. Upon the death of SHUNSHō in 1793, Hokusai began exploring other styles of art, including European styles he was exposed to through French and Dutch copper engravings he was able to acquire. He used his "go" name (artists name) "SHUNRō" until 1794. in 1793, he was soon expelled from the Katsukawa school by "SHUNKō", the chief disciple and heir of "SHUNSHō" school, possibly due to studies at the rival Kanō school. This event was, in his own words, inspirational: "What really motivated the development of my artistic style was the embarrassment I suffered at SHUNKō's hands."
The next period saw HOKUSAI's association with the TAWARAYA School and the adoption of the name "TAWARAYA Sori." He produced many privatly issued "surimono", and illustrations during this time. "Surimonos" are deluxe single-sheet prints of poems with illustrations, made to be distributed privately, rather than in book or print shops. In 1798, HOKUSAI passed his name on to a pupil and set out as an independent artist, free from ties to a school for the first time, adopting the name HOKUSAI Tomisa.
By 1800, HOKUSAI was further developing his use of ukiyo-e for purposes other than portraiture. He had also adopted the name he would most widely be known by, Katsushika HOKUSAI, the former name referring to the part of Edo where he was born, and the latter meaning, "North Studio". He also began to attract students of his own, eventually teaching 50 pupils over the course of his life, and became increasingly famous over the next decade, both due to his artwork and his talent for self-promotion.
1807 saw HOKUSAI collaborate with the popular novelist Takizawa BAKIN on a series of illustrated books. The two did not get along due to artistic differences, and their collaboration ended during work on their fourth. In 1811, at the age of 51, HOKUSAI changed his name to TAITO and entered the period in which he created the HOKUSAI "Manga" and various et-ehon, or art manuals. These et-ehon, beginning in 1812 with "Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawing", served as a convenient way to make money and attract more students. The first book of HOKUSAI's "manga" (sketches or caricatures that influenced the modern form of comics known by the same name), was published in 1814. Together, his 12 volumes of "manga" published before 1820 and three more published posthumously include thousands of drawings of animals, religious figures, and everyday people. They often have humorous overtones, and were very popular at the time.
In 1820, HOKUSAI changed his name yet again, this time to "IITSU," a change which marked the start of a period in which he secured fame as an artist throughout Japan. It was during the 1820s that Hokusai reached the peak of his career. His most famous work, "36 Views of Mount Fuji", including the famous "Great Wave off Kanagawa", dated from this period. It proved so popular that HOKUSAI later added ten more prints to the series. Among the other popular series of prints he published during this time are "A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces" and "Unusual Views of Celebrated Bridges in the Provinces". He also began producing a number of detailed individual images of flowers and birds, including the extraordinarily detailed "Poppies and Flock of Chickens", often as "surimonos".
The next period, beginning in 1834, saw HOKUSAI working under the name "Gakyō Rōjin Manji" (The Old Man Mad About Art). It was at this time that HOKUSAI produced "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji", another significant landscape series. In 1839, a fire destroyed HOKUSAI's studio and much of his work. By this time, his career was beginning to fade as younger artists such as Andō HIROSHIGE became increasingly popular. But HOKUSAI never stopped painting, and completed the famous "Ducks in a Stream" at the age of 87. Constantly seeking to produce better work, he apparently exclaimed on his deathbed, "If only Heaven will give me just another ten years... Just another five more years, then I could become a real painter."
HOKUSAI was also a kind of early "happening performance artist". During a Nagoya festival in 1817, he created a portrait of the Buddhist priest Daruma said to be about 120 tatami mats (18 x 10.8m) large, using a broom and buckets full of ink. Another story places him in the court of the Shogun Iyenari, invited there to compete with another artist who practiced more traditional brush stroke painting. HOKUSAI's painting, created in front of the Shogun, consisted of painting a blue curve on paper, then chasing a chicken across it whose feet had been dipped in red paint. He described the painting to the Shogun as a landscape showing the Tatsuta River with red maple leaves floating in it, winning the competition.
HOKUSAI has also executed erotic depictions. Such paintings were called "shunga". "Shunga" is a term for erotic depictions. Most shunga are a type of ukiyo-e, usually executed in woodblock print format. Translated literally, the Japanese word "shunga" means "picture of spring". "Shunga" was enjoyed by both men and women of all classes. It was traditional to present a bride with ukiyo-e depicting erotic scenes from the "Tale of Genji". "Shunga" may also have served as sexual guidance for the sons and daughters of wealthy families. The most famous "shunga" might be "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife" ("蛸と海女", "Tako to ama"), literally "Octopus and shell diver".
Personal life - He was born in the Katsushika District of EDO (Warigesui, Honjo, Edo, todays Sumida, Tokio) on October 30 in 1760 under his childhood name Tokitarō. The names of his parents are unknown. Nakajima ISE (中島伊勢) adopted him at the age of three. Nakajima ISE never made HOKUSAI an heir, therefore it's possible that his mother was a concubine. During the decade in SHUNSHō's studio from 1767 - 1793, HOKUSAI ("Katsukawa SHUNRō", "勝川 春朗") was married to his first wife, about whom very little is known except that she died in the early 1790s. He married again in 1797 his second wife Koto. Koto died in may 1828, shortly after his stroke in 1827. He fathered two sons and four daughters with his two wives, and his youngest daughter Sakae, also known as Ōi (active from 1825-1860), eventually also became an artist.
HOKUSAI traveled a lot within the Edo adjoining provinces, visiting pupils, friends, publishers etc..He changed his residences (63 times) nearly as often as his names (more than 60) throughout his lifetime. The years 1836-1838 saw the height of the Tempō crisis, a time of widespread famine and financial and also political hardship, which provoked a collapse in the demand for prints and printed books. HOKUSAI became poor because of this, and was said to have been trying to sell his drawings in the streets. Along with many other people, he left Edo and fled to the countryside. Despite printing one last series of single prints ("One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse") on his return, HOKUSAI’s production rate decreased during the last decade of his life. From then on he would dedicate his main efforts to painting.
HOKUSAI died on May 10th 1849 in his house in Sotencho, Asakusa. He was buried at the Seikyo-ji in Asakusa (Tokyo, Taito Ward). His posthumous name was Nansoin Kyohokusai koji.
Aliases - "Tokitaro" (時太郎) as childhood name; "Tetsuzo" (鉄蔵) as common name; "Nakajima" (中島) as family name); "Miuraya Hachiemon" (三浦屋八右衛門) as common name in later years); "Shunro" (勝川) and "Katsukawa Shunro" (勝川春郎) as "go" names (from 1779); "Gunbatei" (群馬亭) for illustrations of short stories (1785); "Tawara Sori" (宗理) as "go" name (1797); "Hyakurin Sori" (百琳宗理); "Hokusai Sori" (北斎宗理) (1796); "Kako" (可候);" Hokusai Tokimasa" (or "Tatsumasa", 辰政); and "Hokusai", as well as "Gakyojin" (画狂人); "Gakyo Rojin" (画狂老人); "Gakyojin Hokusai" (画狂人 北斎) (1798); "Kintaisha" (錦袋舎); "Kyokyoshin" (九々蜃) and "Katsushika Hokusai" (葛飾北斎, 1805); "Taito" (戴斗) (1810); "Raishin" (雷震); "Iitsu" (為一) (1820); "Saki no Hokusai Iitsu" (前北斎為一); "Manji" (卍) for "senryo" or comical stories (1823); "Fusenkyo Iitsu" (不染居為一); "Getchi Rojin" (月癡老人); "Gakyo rojin Manji" (1834); "Tsuchimochi Ninsaburo" (土持仁三郎); "Tokitaro Kako" (時太郎可候 gesaku-go); Hishikawa Sori (菱川宗理)
Disciples - Since 1798 he accepted students and taught them the art of woodblock printing and the art of drawing. His fist student was Rinsai Soji ("Sori", "宗理" as "go" name). Among his best known disciples were "Totoya Hokkei", "Katsushika Taito-II" (active 1820-1850), Yanagawa SHIGENOBU (柳川 重信), 1787-1832; pupil , adopted son, and husband of his eldest daughter Oi), Katsushika Oi (his daughter), Ryūryūkyo Shinsai, "Shinsa", "Hokuju",
"Hokuba" and "Issai".
Others include Maki Bokusen (1775 - 1824), Tenro Hokusen (active 1810-1853), Otsuka Hachiro (1795-1855), Honma Hokyo (1822-1868), Hokurei, Hishikawa Sōri, Katsushika Hokumei, Katsushika Hokūn, Katsushika Isai, Katsushika Hokui, Teisai Hokuba, Numata Gessai, Shōtei, Hokuju, Hōtei Gosei, and Enkōan.
HOKUSAI was born in the Katsushika District of Edo (nowadays Tokiyo). Quite early, he was adopted by the NAKAJIMA (伊勢中 島) family of Ise. His father produced mirrors for the shogun. HOKUSAI began painting around the age of six, possibly learning the art from his father, whose work on mirrors also included the painting of designs around the mirrors. At the age of 12, he was sent to work in a bookshop and lending library, a popular type of institution in Japanese cities, where reading manga books was a popular entertainment of the middle and upper classes. At 14, he became an apprentice to a wood-carver, where he worked until the age of 18, whereupon he was accepted into the ukiyo-e studio of "Katsukawa SHUNSHō". SHUNSHō focused on images of courtesans and Kabuki actors who were popular in Japan's cities at that time. He studied at SHUNSHō's studio together with "Kano Yusen", "Tsutsumi Torin III", "Sumiyoshi Hiroyuki" and others. After a year, Hokusai's name changed to "Katsukawa SHUNRō" (勝川 春朗), when he was officialy accepted in Katsukawa SHUNSHō's studio.
HOSKUSAI's ("SHUNRō's") first woodblocks was a series of pictures of Kabuki actors, published in 1779. Upon the death of SHUNSHō in 1793, Hokusai began exploring other styles of art, including European styles he was exposed to through French and Dutch copper engravings he was able to acquire. He used his "go" name (artists name) "SHUNRō" until 1794. in 1793, he was soon expelled from the Katsukawa school by "SHUNKō", the chief disciple and heir of "SHUNSHō" school, possibly due to studies at the rival Kanō school. This event was, in his own words, inspirational: "What really motivated the development of my artistic style was the embarrassment I suffered at SHUNKō's hands."
The next period saw HOKUSAI's association with the TAWARAYA School and the adoption of the name "TAWARAYA Sori." He produced many privatly issued "surimono", and illustrations during this time. "Surimonos" are deluxe single-sheet prints of poems with illustrations, made to be distributed privately, rather than in book or print shops. In 1798, HOKUSAI passed his name on to a pupil and set out as an independent artist, free from ties to a school for the first time, adopting the name HOKUSAI Tomisa.
By 1800, HOKUSAI was further developing his use of ukiyo-e for purposes other than portraiture. He had also adopted the name he would most widely be known by, Katsushika HOKUSAI, the former name referring to the part of Edo where he was born, and the latter meaning, "North Studio". He also began to attract students of his own, eventually teaching 50 pupils over the course of his life, and became increasingly famous over the next decade, both due to his artwork and his talent for self-promotion.
1807 saw HOKUSAI collaborate with the popular novelist Takizawa BAKIN on a series of illustrated books. The two did not get along due to artistic differences, and their collaboration ended during work on their fourth. In 1811, at the age of 51, HOKUSAI changed his name to TAITO and entered the period in which he created the HOKUSAI "Manga" and various et-ehon, or art manuals. These et-ehon, beginning in 1812 with "Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawing", served as a convenient way to make money and attract more students. The first book of HOKUSAI's "manga" (sketches or caricatures that influenced the modern form of comics known by the same name), was published in 1814. Together, his 12 volumes of "manga" published before 1820 and three more published posthumously include thousands of drawings of animals, religious figures, and everyday people. They often have humorous overtones, and were very popular at the time.
In 1820, HOKUSAI changed his name yet again, this time to "IITSU," a change which marked the start of a period in which he secured fame as an artist throughout Japan. It was during the 1820s that Hokusai reached the peak of his career. His most famous work, "36 Views of Mount Fuji", including the famous "Great Wave off Kanagawa", dated from this period. It proved so popular that HOKUSAI later added ten more prints to the series. Among the other popular series of prints he published during this time are "A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces" and "Unusual Views of Celebrated Bridges in the Provinces". He also began producing a number of detailed individual images of flowers and birds, including the extraordinarily detailed "Poppies and Flock of Chickens", often as "surimonos".
The next period, beginning in 1834, saw HOKUSAI working under the name "Gakyō Rōjin Manji" (The Old Man Mad About Art). It was at this time that HOKUSAI produced "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji", another significant landscape series. In 1839, a fire destroyed HOKUSAI's studio and much of his work. By this time, his career was beginning to fade as younger artists such as Andō HIROSHIGE became increasingly popular. But HOKUSAI never stopped painting, and completed the famous "Ducks in a Stream" at the age of 87. Constantly seeking to produce better work, he apparently exclaimed on his deathbed, "If only Heaven will give me just another ten years... Just another five more years, then I could become a real painter."
HOKUSAI was also a kind of early "happening performance artist". During a Nagoya festival in 1817, he created a portrait of the Buddhist priest Daruma said to be about 120 tatami mats (18 x 10.8m) large, using a broom and buckets full of ink. Another story places him in the court of the Shogun Iyenari, invited there to compete with another artist who practiced more traditional brush stroke painting. HOKUSAI's painting, created in front of the Shogun, consisted of painting a blue curve on paper, then chasing a chicken across it whose feet had been dipped in red paint. He described the painting to the Shogun as a landscape showing the Tatsuta River with red maple leaves floating in it, winning the competition.
HOKUSAI has also executed erotic depictions. Such paintings were called "shunga". "Shunga" is a term for erotic depictions. Most shunga are a type of ukiyo-e, usually executed in woodblock print format. Translated literally, the Japanese word "shunga" means "picture of spring". "Shunga" was enjoyed by both men and women of all classes. It was traditional to present a bride with ukiyo-e depicting erotic scenes from the "Tale of Genji". "Shunga" may also have served as sexual guidance for the sons and daughters of wealthy families. The most famous "shunga" might be "The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife" ("蛸と海女", "Tako to ama"), literally "Octopus and shell diver".
Personal life - He was born in the Katsushika District of EDO (Warigesui, Honjo, Edo, todays Sumida, Tokio) on October 30 in 1760 under his childhood name Tokitarō. The names of his parents are unknown. Nakajima ISE (中島伊勢) adopted him at the age of three. Nakajima ISE never made HOKUSAI an heir, therefore it's possible that his mother was a concubine. During the decade in SHUNSHō's studio from 1767 - 1793, HOKUSAI ("Katsukawa SHUNRō", "勝川 春朗") was married to his first wife, about whom very little is known except that she died in the early 1790s. He married again in 1797 his second wife Koto. Koto died in may 1828, shortly after his stroke in 1827. He fathered two sons and four daughters with his two wives, and his youngest daughter Sakae, also known as Ōi (active from 1825-1860), eventually also became an artist.
HOKUSAI traveled a lot within the Edo adjoining provinces, visiting pupils, friends, publishers etc..He changed his residences (63 times) nearly as often as his names (more than 60) throughout his lifetime. The years 1836-1838 saw the height of the Tempō crisis, a time of widespread famine and financial and also political hardship, which provoked a collapse in the demand for prints and printed books. HOKUSAI became poor because of this, and was said to have been trying to sell his drawings in the streets. Along with many other people, he left Edo and fled to the countryside. Despite printing one last series of single prints ("One Hundred Poems Explained by the Nurse") on his return, HOKUSAI’s production rate decreased during the last decade of his life. From then on he would dedicate his main efforts to painting.
HOKUSAI died on May 10th 1849 in his house in Sotencho, Asakusa. He was buried at the Seikyo-ji in Asakusa (Tokyo, Taito Ward). His posthumous name was Nansoin Kyohokusai koji.
Aliases - "Tokitaro" (時太郎) as childhood name; "Tetsuzo" (鉄蔵) as common name; "Nakajima" (中島) as family name); "Miuraya Hachiemon" (三浦屋八右衛門) as common name in later years); "Shunro" (勝川) and "Katsukawa Shunro" (勝川春郎) as "go" names (from 1779); "Gunbatei" (群馬亭) for illustrations of short stories (1785); "Tawara Sori" (宗理) as "go" name (1797); "Hyakurin Sori" (百琳宗理); "Hokusai Sori" (北斎宗理) (1796); "Kako" (可候);" Hokusai Tokimasa" (or "Tatsumasa", 辰政); and "Hokusai", as well as "Gakyojin" (画狂人); "Gakyo Rojin" (画狂老人); "Gakyojin Hokusai" (画狂人 北斎) (1798); "Kintaisha" (錦袋舎); "Kyokyoshin" (九々蜃) and "Katsushika Hokusai" (葛飾北斎, 1805); "Taito" (戴斗) (1810); "Raishin" (雷震); "Iitsu" (為一) (1820); "Saki no Hokusai Iitsu" (前北斎為一); "Manji" (卍) for "senryo" or comical stories (1823); "Fusenkyo Iitsu" (不染居為一); "Getchi Rojin" (月癡老人); "Gakyo rojin Manji" (1834); "Tsuchimochi Ninsaburo" (土持仁三郎); "Tokitaro Kako" (時太郎可候 gesaku-go); Hishikawa Sori (菱川宗理)
Disciples - Since 1798 he accepted students and taught them the art of woodblock printing and the art of drawing. His fist student was Rinsai Soji ("Sori", "宗理" as "go" name). Among his best known disciples were "Totoya Hokkei", "Katsushika Taito-II" (active 1820-1850), Yanagawa SHIGENOBU (柳川 重信), 1787-1832; pupil , adopted son, and husband of his eldest daughter Oi), Katsushika Oi (his daughter), Ryūryūkyo Shinsai, "Shinsa", "Hokuju",
"Hokuba" and "Issai".
Others include Maki Bokusen (1775 - 1824), Tenro Hokusen (active 1810-1853), Otsuka Hachiro (1795-1855), Honma Hokyo (1822-1868), Hokurei, Hishikawa Sōri, Katsushika Hokumei, Katsushika Hokūn, Katsushika Isai, Katsushika Hokui, Teisai Hokuba, Numata Gessai, Shōtei, Hokuju, Hōtei Gosei, and Enkōan.
Copyright 2008 ff: Hans P. Boehme