HO

KU

SA

I

A M

AN

OF

MA

NY

VIE

WS

o n e

one

o n e

HOKUSAI stands above his fellows. He was indeed a realist— free, unfettered, and a law unto himself; and it is in virtue of his great humanity, as well as of the splendour of his gift of artistry that, in our eyes, he ranks with the masters of the world’s art.

M A R K F E AT H E R B I R D

Trav

elin

g ar

ound

the

Wat

erfa

lls in

the

Prov

ince

s: K

irifu

ri W

ater

fall

at M

ount

Kur

okam

i in

Shim

otsu

ke P

rovi

nce

SAK

I N

O H

OK

USA

I II

TSU

, 183

3

Col

or w

oodb

lock

pri

nt O

ban,

38.

1 x

25.8

cm

The

Man

n C

olle

ctio

n, H

ighl

and

Park

, Illi

nois

The

Gre

at W

ave

Off

Kana

gaw

aT

HIR

TY-

SIX

VIE

WS

OF

MO

UN

T F

UJI

, ca.

182

9-32

Col

or w

oodb

lock

pri

nt

25.7

x 3

7.8

cm

The

Met

ropo

litan

Mus

eum

of A

rt

{ c o v e r }

{ l e f t }

t w o

one

Wom

en w

ith U

mbr

ella

bes

ide

a W

illow

Tre

eG

AK

YO

JIN

HO

KU

SAI,

ca. 1

802-

03H

angi

ng sc

roll;

ink

and

colo

r on

pap

er83

.5 x

25.

0 cm

The

Hok

usai

Mus

eum

Wom

en in

Var

ious

Wal

ks o

f Life

Ca.

179

3H

angi

ng sc

roll;

ink

and

colo

r on

pap

er10

7.0

x 52

.5 c

mK

atsu

shik

a H

okus

ai M

useu

m o

f Art

Wom

en in

Var

ious

Wal

ks o

f Life

Ca.

179

3H

angi

ng sc

roll;

ink

and

colo

r on

pap

er10

6.8

x 52

.7 c

mK

atsu

shik

a H

okus

ai M

useu

m o

f Art

Wom

en W

alki

ng b

enea

th a

Will

ow T

ree

HO

KU

SAI

SOR

GA

, ca.

178

7-98

Han

ging

scro

ll; in

k an

d co

lor

on p

aper

99.7

x 2

8.0

cmH

osom

i Mus

eum

t h r e e

K A T S U S H I K A H O K U S A Iwas a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. In his time, he was Japan’s leading expert on Chinese painting. Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hoku-sai is best-known as author of the wood-block print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the iconic and interna-tionally 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 obses-sion with Mount Fuji. 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:

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.

Hokusai was born on the 23rd day of 9th month of the 10th year of the Hōreki pe-riod (October or November 1760) to an artisan family, in the Katsushika district of Edo, Japan. His childhood name was Tokitarō. It is believed his father was the mirror-maker Nakajima Ise, who produced mirrors for the shogun. His father never made Hokusai an heir, so it’s possible

“Indeed, if there is one work that made Hokusai’s name, both in

Japan and abroad, it must be this monumental print-series...”

f o u r

one

Act

or Ic

hika

wa

Ebiz

o IV

as

Mon

k M

onga

kuSH

UN

RO

, 179

1C

olor

woo

dblo

ck p

rint

Hos

oban

, 31.

4 x

13.5

cm

The

Bri

tish

Mus

eum

190

4.1.

10.0

2

Act

or S

akat

a H

ango

ro II

I as

Chi

nzei

Hac

hiro

Tam

etom

oSH

UN

RO

, 179

1C

olor

woo

dblo

ck p

rint

Hos

oban

, 31.

4 x

13.5

cm

Mus

eum

of F

ine A

rts,

Bos

ton,

Will

iam

Stu

rgis

Big

elow

Col

lect

ion

11.1

992

Zhan

g Fe

i in

Snow

fall

GA

KY

O R

OJI

N M

AN

JI, 1

843

Han

ging

scr

oll;

ink

and

colo

r on

silk

132.

6 cm

x 4

3.9

cmU

jiie

Uki

yo-e

Col

lect

ion,

Kam

akur

a M

useu

m

f i v e

lished in 1779. During the decade he worked in Shunshō’s studio, Hokusai was married to his first wife, about whom very little is known except that she died in the early 1790s. He would marry again in 1797, although this second wife also died after a short time. He fathered two sons and three daughters with these two wives, and his youngest daughter Sakae, also known as Ōi, eventually became an artist like her father.

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 ac-quire. He was soon expelled from the Katsukawa school by Shunkō, the chief disciple of Shunshō, possibly due to stud-ies at the rival Kanō school. This event was, in his own words, inspirational:

Hokusai also changed the subjects of his works, moving away from the im-ages of courtesans and actors that were the traditional subjects of ukiyo-e. In-stead, his work became focused on land-scapes and images of the daily life of Japanese people from a variety of social levels. This change of subject was a break-through in ukiyo-e and in Hokusai’s ca-reer. Fireworks at Ryōgoku Bridge (1790), dates from this period of Hokusai’s life.

The next period saw Hokusai’s association

that his mother was a concubine. Hoku-sai 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.

HOKUSA I was known by at least 30 names during his lifetime. Although the use of multiple names was a common practice of Japanese artists of the time, the numbers of names he used far exceeds that of any other major Japanese artist. Hokusai’s name changes are so frequent, and so often related to changes in his ar-tistic production and style, that they are useful for breaking his life up into periods.

At the age of 12, he was sent by his father to work in a bookshop and lending library, a popular type of institution in Japanese cities, where reading books made from wood-cut blocks was a popular entertain-ment 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 studio of Katsukawa Shunshō. Shunshō was an artist of ukiyo-e, a style of wood block prints and paintings that Hokusai would master, and head of the so-called Katsukawa school. Ukiyo-e, as practiced by artists like Shunshō, focused on images of the courtesans and Kabuki actors who were popular in Japan’s cities at the time.

After a year, Hokusai’s name changed for the first time, when he was dubbed Shunrō by his master. It was under this name that he published his first prints, a series of pictures of Kabuki actors pub-

with the Tawaraya School and the adoption of the name “Tawaraya Sōri.” He produced many brush paintings, called surimono, and illustrations for kyōka ehon during this time. 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, Katsu-shika Hokusai, the former name referring to the part of Edo where he was born and the latter meaning, ‘north studio’. That year, he published two collections of land-scapes, Famous Sights of the Eastern Capital and Eight Views of Edo. He also began to at-tract students of his own, eventually teach-ing 50 pupils over the course of his life.

“What really motivated the development of my artistic style was the embarrass-ment I suffered at Shunkō’s hands.”

s i x

one

Popp

ies

and

Yello

w B

utte

rfly

KA

TSU

SHIK

A H

OK

USA

I, 18

34C

olor

woo

dblo

ck p

rint

Hib

iscus

and

Spa

rrow

KA

TSU

SHIK

A H

OK

USA

I, 18

34C

olor

woo

dblo

ck p

rint

Pink

and

Red

Peo

nies

Blo

wn

to th

e Le

ft in

a B

reez

e an

d a

Butte

rfly

KA

TSU

SHIK

A H

OK

USA

I, 18

34C

olor

woo

dblo

ck p

rint

24 X

36.

5 cm

Bullfi

nch

and

Wee

ping

Che

rry

SAK

I N

O H

OK

USA

I II

TSU

, 183

4C

olor

woo

dblo

ck p

rint

Chu

ban,

25.

1 x

18.2

cm

Hon

olul

u A

cade

my

of A

rts,

Gift

of J

ames

A. M

iche

ner,

1991

(21,

988)

Gro

sbea

k an

d Fo

ur-O

’Clo

cks

SAK

I N

O H

OK

USA

I II

TSU

, 183

4C

olor

woo

dblo

ck p

rint

Chu

ban,

29.

3 x

19.0

cm

Toky

o N

atio

nal M

useu

m

Peon

ies

and

Can

ary

KA

TSU

SHIK

A H

OK

USA

I, 18

34C

olor

woo

dblo

ck p

rint

atio

nal M

useu

m a

t Tok

yo

King

fishe

r w

ith P

inks

and

Iris

KA

TSH

USH

IKA

HO

KU

SAI,

1832

colo

r w

oodb

lock

pri

nt

{to

p:

left

to

rig

ht}

{bo

tto

m:

left

to

rig

ht}

s e v e n

HOKUSA I became increasingly fa-mous over the next decade, both due to his artwork and his talent for self-pro-motion. During a Tokyo festival in 1804, he created a portrait of the Buddhist priest Daruma said to be 600 feet (180 m) long using a broom and buckets full of ink. Another story places him in the court of the Shogun Iyenari, invited there to com-pete 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 collaborated with the popu-lar 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

At s

even

ty-th

ree

I lea

rned

a li

ttle

abou

t the

real

stru

ctur

e of

ani

mal

s, p

lant

s, b

irds,

fish

es, a

nd

inse

cts.

Con

sequ

ently

whe

n I a

m e

ight

y

I’ll h

ave

mad

e m

ore

prog

ress

. At n

inet

y I’l

l hav

e pe

netra

ted

the

mys

tery

of t

hing

s. a

t a h

undr

ed I

shal

l hav

e re

ache

d so

met

hing

mar

vello

us, b

ut w

hen

I am

a h

undr

ed a

nd te

n

ever

ythi

ng I

do, t

he s

mal

lest

dot

, will

be

aliv

e

KA

TS

US

HIK

A H

OK

US

AI

e i g h t

on their fourth. The publisher, given the choice between keeping Hokusai or Bakin on the project, opted to keep Hokusai, emphasizing the importance of illustra-tions in printed works of the period.

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 etehon, or art manuals. These ete-hon, beginning in 1812 with Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawing, served as a conve-nient way to make money and attract more students. The first book of Hokusai’s man-ga, sketches or caricatures that influenced the modern form of comics known by the same name, was published in 1814. Togeth-er, his 12 volumes of manga published be-fore 1820 and three more published post-humously include thousands of drawings of animals, religious figures, and everyday people. They often have humorous over-tones, 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 Ja-pan (though, given Japan’s isolation from the outside world during his lifetime, his fame overseas came after his death). 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 num-ber of detailed individual images of flow-ers and birds, including the extraordinarily detailed Poppies and Flock of Chickens.

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 Hoku-sai produced One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, another significant landscape series. In the postscript to this work, Hokusai writes:

From around the age of six, I had the habit of sketching from life. I became an artist, and from fifty on began produc-ing works that won some reputation, but nothing I did before the age of seventy was worthy of attention. At seventy-three, I began to grasp the structures of birds and beasts, insects and fish, and of the way plants grow. If I go on trying, I will surely understand them still better by the time I am eighty-six, so that by ninety I will have penetrated to their essential nature. At one hundred, I may well have a posi-tively divine understanding of them, while at one hundred and thirty, forty, or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive. May Heaven, that grants long life, give me the chance to prove that this is no lie. In 1839, disaster struck as a fire destroyed Hokusai’s studio and much of his work. By this time, his career was beginning to wane as younger artists such as Andō Hiroshige became increasingly popular. But Hokusai

True

Mirr

ors

of C

hine

se a

nd J

apan

ese

Poet

ry: M

inist

er T

oru

SAK

I N

O H

OK

USA

I II

TSU

, ca.

183

3C

olor

woo

dblo

ck p

rint

Nag

aban

, 50.

6 x

22.7

cm

The

Art

Ins

titut

e of

Chi

cago

, Cla

renc

e B

ucki

ngha

m C

olle

ctio

n 19

25.3

332

n i n e

never stopped painting, and completed Ducks in a Stream at the age of 87. Con-stantly 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.”

He died on May 10, 1849, and was bur-ied at the Seikyō-ji in Tokyo (Taito Ward). A short four years after Hokusai’s death, an American fleet led by Matthew C. Perry sailed into Tokyo Bay and forced Japan to open its arms to the west. Hokusai’s ca-reer spanned the last age of Japanese his-tory before its interaction with the west would change the course of the nation. Hokusai had a long career, but he produced most of his important work after age 60. His most popular work is the ukiyo-e series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which was created between 1826 and 1833. It actually consists of 46 prints (10 of them added after publication). In addition, he is responsible for the 1834 One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, a work which “is generally consid-ered the masterpiece among his landscape picture books.” His ukiyo-e transformed the art form from a style of portraiture fo-cused on the courtesans and actors popu-lar during the Edo Period in Japan’s cities into a much broader style of art that fo-cused on landscapes, plants, and animals. Both Hokusai’s choice of nom d’artiste and frequent depiction of Mt. Fuji stem from his religious beliefs. The name Hokusai

means “North Studio (room),” or “North Star Studio.” Hokusai was a member of the Nichiren sect of Buddhism, who see the North Star as associated with the deity Myōken. Mount Fuji has traditionally been linked with eternal life. This belief can be traced to the The Tale of the Bamboo Cut-ter, where a goddess deposits the elixir of life on the peak. As Henry Smith expounds:

“Thus from an early time, Mt. Fuji was seen as the source of the secret of immortality, a tradition that was at the heart of Hoku-sai’s own obsession with the mountain.”

The largest of Hokusai’s works is the 15-vol-ume collection Hokusai Manga, (a book crammed with nearly 4,000 sketches that was published in 1814. These sketches are often incorrectly considered the precedent to modern manga, as Hokusai’s Manga is a collection of sketches (of animals, people, objects, etc.), different from the story-based comic-book style of modern manga.

Hokusai inspired the Hugo Award win-ning short story by science fiction author Roger Zelazny, “24 views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai”, in which the protagonist tours the area surrounding Mt. Fuji, with each stop being a location painted by Hokusai.His influences also stretched to his con-temporaries in nineteenth century Eu-rope whose new style Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil in Germany, was influenced by him and by Japanese art in general. This was also part of the larger Impres-sionist movement, with similar themes to Hokusai appearing in Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Hermann Obrist’s

True

Mirr

ors

of C

hine

se a

nd J

apan

ese

Poet

ry: L

i Bo

SAK

I N

O H

OK

USA

I II

TSU

, ca.

183

3C

olor

woo

dblo

ck p

rint

Nag

aban

, 51.

9 x

23.1

cm

Hon

olul

u A

cade

my

of A

rts,

gift

of J

ames

A. M

iche

ner,

1969

(2

1,89

2)

t e n

one

Sout

h W

ind,

Cle

ar M

orni

ng (

Red

Fuji)

KA

TSH

USH

IKA

HO

KU

SAI,

1849

Col

or w

oodb

lock

pri

nt

e l e v e n

whiplash motif, or Peitschenhieb, which became seen to exemplify the new movement, is visibly influenced by Hokusai’s work.

“From the age of six I had a ma-nia for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs, but all I have done before the age of seventy is not worth bother-ing with. At seventy five I’ll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvelous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word.

I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self ‘The Old Man Mad About Drawing.”

HOKUSA I started out as a art student of woodblocks and paintings. During the 600-year Shogun period, Japan had sealed itself off from the rest of the world. Con-tact with Western culture was forbidden. Nevertheless, Hokusai discovered and stud-ied the European copper-plate engravings that were being smuggled into the country. Here he learned about shading, coloring, realism, and landscape perspective. He in-troduced all of these elements into wood-

At a

hun

dred

I sh

all b

e a

mar

velo

us a

rtist

. At a

hund

red

and

ten

ever

ythi

ng I

crea

te; a

dot

, a li

ne, w

ill ju

mp

to li

fe

neve

r be

fore

. To

all o

f you

who

are

goin

g to

live

as

long

as

I do,

I pr

omise

to k

eep

my

wor

d

KA

TS

US

HIK

A H

OK

US

AI

t w e l v e

nese illustrative art at the time, Hokusai placed the common man into his wood-blocks, moving the emphasis away from the aristocrats and to the rest of human-ity. In The Great Wave, tiny humans are tossed around under giant waves, while enormous Mt. Fuji is a hill in the distance.

Hokusai’s most famous picture and easily Ja-pan’s most famous image is a seascape with Mt. Fuji. The waves form a frame through which we see Mt. Fuji in the distance. Hokusai loved to depict water in motion:

The foam of the wave is breaking into claws, which, grasp for the fishermen. The large wave forms a massive yin to the yang of empty space under it. The impend-ing crash of the wave brings tension into the painting. In the foreground, a small peaked wave forms a miniature Mt. Fuji, which is repeated hundreds of miles away in the enormous Mt. Fuji, which shrinks through perspective; the wavelet is larger than the mountain. Instead of shoguns and nobility, we see tiny fishermen huddled into their sleek crafts as they slide down a wave and dive straight into the next wave to get to the other side. The yin violence of Nature is counterbalanced by the yang, relaxed confidence of expert fishermen. Al-though it’s a sea storm, the sun is shining.

To Westerners, this woodblock seems to be the quintessential Japanese im-age, yet it’s quite un-Japanese. Tra-ditional Japanese would have never painted lower-class fishermen (at the time, fishermen were one of the low-

est and most despised of Japanese so-cial classes); Japanese ignored nature; they would not have used perspective; they wouldn’t have paid much attention to the subtle shading of the sky. We like the woodblock print because it’s familiar to us. The elements of this Japanese pas-toral painting originated in Western art: it includes landscape, long-distance per-spective, nature, and ordinary humans, all of which were foreign to Japanese art at the time. The Giant Wave is actually a West-ern painting, seen through Japanese eyes.

Hokusai didn’t merely use Western art. He transformed Dutch pastoral paintings by adding the Japanese style of flattening and the use of color surfaces as an element. By the 1880’s, Japanese prints were the rage in Western culture. Hoku-sai’s prints were studied by young European art-ists, such as Van Gogh and Whistler, in a style called Japonaiserie. Thus Western painting returned to the West.

block and ukiyo-e art and thus revolu-tionized and invigorated Japanese art.

Although Chinese and Japanese paintings had been using long distance landscape views for 1,500 years, this style had nev-er entered the woodblock print. Ukiyo-e woodblocks were produced for bourgeoi-sie city gentry who wanted images of street life, sumo wrestlers, and geishas. The countryside and peasants were ignored.

In Holland in the late 1500s, artists such as Claes Jansz Visscher and Wil-lem Buytewech developed landscape art, which focused on topographically-correct landscape representation. Land-scape art reached its peak between 1630 and 1660 through Rembrandt van Rijn, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Jan van Goyen. By the late 1700s, these Dutch paint-ings had become so common that the etchings were used as cheap illustra-tions. Dutch merchants smuggled their goods into Japan. These wares were often wrapped in paper that had been illustrat-ed with these etchings. For Hokusai and other artists, the thrown-away wrappers were more interesting than the imports.

HOKUSA I learned from Dutch and French pastoral landscapes with their perspective, shading, and realistic shad-ows and turned them into Japanese landscapes. More importantly, he in-troduced the serenity of nature and the unity of man and his surroundings into Japanese popular art. Instead of shoguns, samurai, and their geishas, which were the common topics of Japa-

If H

eave

n ha

d on

ly g

rant

ed m

e

five

mor

e ye

ars,

I co

uld

have

bec

ome

a re

al p

aint

er

KA

TS

US

HIK

A H

OK

US

AI

Trav

elin

g ar

ound

the

Wat

erfa

lls in

the

Prov

ince

s:

Am

ida

Wat

erfa

ll on

the

Kiso

kaid

o Ro

adSA

KI

NO

HO

KU

SAI

IIT

SU, 1

833

Col

or w

oodb

lock

pri

ntO

ban,

38.

7 x

27.9

cm

Cou

rtes

y D

avid

R. W

einb

erg

Col

lect

ion

o n e

one

If H

eave

n ha

d on

ly g

rant

ed m

e

five

mor

e ye

ars,

I co

uld

have

bec

ome

a re

al p

aint

er

KA

TS

US

HIK

A H

OK

US

AI

HOKUSA I : A M a n Wi t h M a n y Vi e w s is organized by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Norton Museum of Art. Generous support for the exhibition is provided by the Koret Foundation. Additional support is provided by the National Endow-ment for the Arts.

The San Francisco presentation is made possible by generous sup-port from Doris and Donald Fisher, the Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, and Nancy and Steven H. Oliver. Additional support is provided by the Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation.

San

Fran

cisc

o M

useu

m o

f Mod

ern

Art

15

1 T

hird

Stre

et (

betw

een

Miss

ion

+ H

owar

d)

San

Fran

cisc

o C

A 9

41

03

(41

5)

35

7-4

00

0

Janu

ary

10, 2

010

– A

pril

10, 2

010

H O K U S A IA M a n O f M a n y V i e w s