Katsushika Hokusai
Old Man Mad about Painting
Katsushika Hokusai
(31 October 1760 – 10 May 1849), known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese
artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Hokusai is
best known for the woodblock print series
Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji 🗻
, a series of landscape prints that depicts Mount Fuji from different
locations and in various seasons and weather conditions.
The iconic nature of Hokusai's prints has contributed to his ongoing
influence on both fine art and popular culture.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
is among the most reproduced images in the history of art, referenced by
cartoonists including Hergé and Gary Larson, fashion designer Hanae Mori
and transformed into an emoji in 2010. 🌊
Hokusai died at the age of ninety in 1849, having created around 30,000
print designs across his lifetime. His final words, reportedly, were a
wish for more time:
"if heaven would give me just five more years, I might become a true
painter."
His burial, at the Seikjoji Temple in Taito, attracted around a hundred
people. His tombstone was inscribed with his final adopted name,
Gakyorojin Manji, which translates to
"old man mad about painting."
