Born a commoner, Katsushika Hokusai passionately pursued art for most of his life and by the time of his death at age eighty-nine was an artist of great renown. And yet his long life was not enough—with each decade he believed his communion with nature grew and his art took on greater spirituality. Moving constantly (more than ninety residences), creating profusely (tens of thousands of works), and with each phase of his life reinventing himself and taking a new name, Hokusai mastered and pioneered artistic styles of late Edo-period Japan. Beginning with ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the floating world,” he created woodblock prints of figures under the direction of Katsukawa Shunshō. After his master’s death and an ensuing series of events, he took the name Hokusai and shifted his focus to nature, which he would continue for the rest of his life. In his old age, his most celebrated period, he called himself Gakyō Rōjin, or “Old Man Mad about Painting.” Hokusai’s depictions of nature are beloved for the fine skill they required in composition, color, and line, as well as their more intangible qualities: the distillation of nature in a precise moment. His mastery is found everywhere in his paintings and prints: in a trilling waterfall or cresting wave, the gathering mist or the slanting rain, the fluttering dragonfly or the diving cuckoo. Pomegranate’s books of postcards contain up to thirty top-quality reproductions bound together in a handy, artful collection. Easy to remove and produced on heavy card stock, these stunning postcards are a delight to the sender and receiver. Postcards are oversized and may require additional postage.

PCB Hokusai

Katsushika, Hokusai

Arts & Photography

Pomegranate Art Books

One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji by the renowned Japanese artist Hokusai is a work of unending visual delight. Considered Hokusai's masterpiece, this series of images captures the simple, elegant shape of Mount Fuji from every angle and in every context. With no more than delicate, engraved outlines and flat washes of gray, Hokusai displays his consummate virtuosity as a draftsman, printmaker, and compositional innovator. Seen behind hanging strips of cloth outside a dyer's shop, or through the close stems of swaying bamboo, Mt. Fuji takes on a variety of guises--at times majestic, ominous, and even occasionally comic--to reflect its multiform meaning within Japanese culture.

Hokusai: One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji

Smith, Henry D.

Individual Artists

George Braziller

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Fugaku Hiyaku-Kei: Or A Hundred Views Of Fuji, Fusiyama (1880)

History & Criticism

Kessinger Publishing

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Literature & Fiction

Literary

Kessinger Publishing, LLC

The beauty of art is necessary for happiness. In everyday life the arts give that extra dimension to life that makes it a great adventure. The art and design in buildings, city planning, gardens and parks, roads, bridges - everything that we use daily contributes to a happy and fulfilling life. Ugly buildings, sloppy design, poor quality workmanship, littering and defacing contributes to a miserable life. Why would you want a miserable life? Why would you want to impose a miserable life on others? Hokusai was not only a truly great artist. He also sent a message to common people, who could afford to buy his low cost prints. He conveyed the beauty of majesty, the mount Fujijama, in life. He conveyed the beauty of scenery - he said to people - look around you and see and enjoy the beauty of the scenery. He conveyed the beauty of a good human life - the craftmanship in making the timber, building the boat, fishing, growing tea, enjoying tea with the scenery. The 36 Views of Mt Fuji are religious prints. But different from the typical Christian religious motif the humans are not shown focused on the diety all the time, even if Mt Fuji is shown to have a pervading influence on their lives. The admiration and worship of Mt Fuji is often shown as incidental - a single traveler of the group casting a glance at the majestic mountain while the others are busy with the many other things to do. In other words a very realistic rendition on how the divine is taking part in everyday life. Katsushika Hokusai (c. October 31, 1760 - May 10, 1849) was a Japanese artist, painter and printmaker in Edo (Tokyo) period 1760-1849. Hokusai established landscape as a new print genre in Japan. At a young age, Hokusai was adopted by an uncle who held the prestigious position of mirror polisher in the household of the shogun, the commander-in-chief of feudal Japan. It was assumed that the young Hokusai would succeed him in the family business, and he likely received an excellent education in preparation for a job that would place him in direct contact with the upper class. In 19th-century Japan, learning to write also meant learning to draw, since the skills and materials required for either activity were almost identical. When Hokusai's formal education began at age six, he displayed an early artistic talent that would lead him down a new path. He began to separate himself from his uncle's trade in his early teens-perhaps because of a personal argument, or perhaps because he believed polishable metal mirrors would soon be replaced by the silvered glass mirrors being imported by the Dutch-and worked first as a clerk at a lending library and then later as a woodblock carver. At age 19, Hokusai joined the studio of ukiyo-e artist Katsukawa Shunsh&#333; and embarked on what would become a seven-decade-long career in art.

Hokusai 36 Views of Mount Fuji: Premium

Cristina Berna

Eric Thomsen

Missys Clan

Hokusai bijutsukan =: Hokusai museum (Japanese Edition)

Reference

Catalogs & Directories

Shueisha

Hokusai, manga to shunga (Japanese Edition)

Foreign Language Study & Reference

Shinchosha

Hokusai manga (Japanese Edition)

Usodo

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