A Brief Introduction to Hokusai

In the pantheon of artistic genius, few names loom larger than Katsushika Hokusai. Though most often remembered for his woodblock print The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Hokusai’s life and work spanned far beyond this one image. With a body of work comprising more than 30,000 drawings and paintings, Hokusai (1760-1849) was the most prolific, varied and indisputably the most creative artist of old Japan.

His influence was also nothing short of boundless — his vision echoing through Van Gogh’s brushstrokes, Monet’s masterpieces, and Debussy’s haunting compositions of La Mer (The Sea). It even ripples into our everyday, seen in Apple’s water wave emoji (🌊) and the new Japanese banknote. Over 170 years after his death, we’re still uncovering and highlighting the work of this remarkable artist.

The early years: From woodblock apprentice to Ukiyo-e visionary 

‘Ever since I was six, I have been obsessed with drawing the shapes of things. By the time I was fifty, I had published countless drawings, but nothing I produced before the age of seventy is worthy of note. Not until I was seventy-three did I begin to understand the structure of nature as it truly is, the structure of animals, plants, trees, birds, fish and insects’ – Katsushika Hokusai, ‘One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji.’ 

Born in October 1760 in what is now modern day Tokyo, Hokusai was artistic even from a young age. He was the son of Nakajima Ise, who crafted mirrors ornamented with painted frames; it is likely that Hokusai would have started drawing in his father’s workshop. As a teenager, he was apprenticed to a wood carver and later to the art studio of Katsukawa ishõ, a master of woodblock printing.

By his twenties, he began designing and carving blocks for ukiyo-e prints, depicting kabuki actors, courtesans and everyday urban life. As author Courtney Watson McCarthy explains in Hokusai Pop-Ups, these prints were ‘mass-produced, cheap and popular. Such images were made by transferring a painted image to a block of wood (often cherry) which was then carved and covered with ink so the image could be printed onto paper. Subsequent blocks were prepared to add colour to the image.’ These early works symbolize his ambition to push the boundaries of printmaking, a genre which was regarded as decorative entertainment, rather than a fine art.

The Edo period and Sakoku 

Hokusai was greatly influenced by Japan’s isolationist sakoku policies, which meant that foreigners were prohibited, on pain of death, from entering the country. There were also stringent restrictions on cultural exchange and trade. However, a small amount of controlled trading slipped through the cracks, including the rich Prussian Blue ink that Hokusai often used.

This isolation nurtured a distinctly Japanese style, but limited exposure to Western art still managed to filter in. The art that made it through influenced Hokusai’s craft when, as Henri-Alexis Baatsch explains in Hokusai: A Life in Drawing, ‘in around 1797–98, [he] was introduced to the Western principles of artistic perspective, and began signing his name in the European fashion, through the influence of another Japanese artist, Shiba Kōkan, who had closer dealings with the Dutch and was fully versed in the arts and techniques of Europe.’ Perhaps one of his most recognisable works include his publication Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the iconic work The Great Wave off Kanagawa, as well as perfectly revealing his awe of the natural world.

Later years: Manga and manuals 

‘All forms have their own dimensions and we need to respect these; we should not forget, however, that these things also belong to a universe whose harmony we must never disrupt. That is my art of painting’ Katsushika Hokusai, ‘Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawing.’ 

Though Hokusai used many names over the course of his creative life, it was in 1800 that he took the name most closely associated with him: Katsushika Hokusai. It was around this time, in the final few decades of his life, that he severed his connection with his previous studio and began to work as an independent artist, coinciding with a new artistic direction that saw him turn his focus to education.

At a time when learning to draw often relied on copying from standardized books, Hokusai faced overwhelming demand to share his expertize. In response, he began teaching students and publishing detailed manuals on drawing technique (edeho). These manuals not only served to teach aspiring artists, but also offered a window into Hokusai’s artistic practice. They showcased his profound understanding of form and movement while conveying his belief that drawing was not only an artistic skill, but a tool for comprehending the world. Early examples of these whimsical drawings are captured in Hokusai Manga – a collection of sketchbooks filled with thousands of his studies on animals, plants and landscapes that laid the foundations for modern-day manga as we know it now.

Hokusai’s encyclopaedic curiosity and observational skills were translated across all his manuals, each page brimming with life, humour and the world around him. In our upcoming book Hokusai’s Method, Kyoko Wada reveals Hokusai’s significance when it came to drawing manuals of the Edo period: ‘Hokusai was the acknowledged leader of the genre because of the huge number of books he produced, the ingenuity and creative originality of his ideas, the multitude of themes, and his compositional skills.’

Over the last forty years of his career, Hokusai worked in many genres – from surimono prints, full-colour prints and full-length novels to brush paintings and manga – while he continued to produce drawing manuals. It is said that over his lifetime, Hokusai produced more than 3,000 pictures, securing fame during his own lifetime, though after his death that diminished.

It was only thanks to the admiration of artists and writers across Europe that Hokusai’s reputation was restored, and his importance recognized.

Hokusai’s Method, which collects 15 volumes of Hokusai’s e-tehon and featuring over 800 illustrations of instructions from 1812 to 1848, is available to pre-order now.

Discover the full Thames & Hudson Hokusai collection