Katsushika Hokusai - A Celebrated Artist
Katsushika Hokusai is a globally celebrated artist that is remembered for manga, ukiyo-e painting, and woodblock printing. It is not very clear when Katsushika Hokusai was born but it is estimated that he was born on the 31st of October in the year 1760; his time of death was May 10th 1849 at the age of 88 years. Katsushika Hokusai was born to a handicraft worker household within the Katsushika region of Edo within Japan and the name he was most called in the course of his childhood years is Tokitaro. History tells us that the father of Katsushika Hokusai made mirrors for a living; Nakajima Ise was very much involved in the production of mirrors for the Ise. Up until today, it is speculated that the reason why Katsushika Hokusai's father never made him an heir is that his mother was a concubine (Keyes 25). His talent manifested very early at the age of six years and perhaps this is because he always observed what his father did from a tender age; Mr Nakajima Ise was also involved in some level of painting on the mirrors. The designs he made on the mirrors helped the young Katsushika Hokusai to learn a lot about what Art was.
Multiple Identities
In the course of his lifetime, Katsushika Hokusai was identified by about 30 names. While the utilization of many names was very common practice for Japanese artists at that point in time, the number of names Katsushika Hokusai had exceeds that of any other artist in Japan. Katsushika Hokusai’s alterations to his name were so frequent, and so many a times tied to changes in his artistic style and production, that they are utilized for segmenting his livelihood into periods.
The Early Years
As an adolescent of age 12 years, Katsushika Hokusai’s father sent him to work in a lending library and bookshop, a very commonplace institution within cities in Japan during such times. The reading of books made from wood-cut blocks was a popular entertainment of individuals that belonged to the upper and middle classes. When he attained the age of 14 years, Katsushika Hokusai worked as an apprentice to a wood-carver; he was involved in wood carving until he reached age 18 when he got to the studio of Katsukawa Shunsho. Katsukawa Shunsho was the principal of Katsukawa school and he mostly involved himself with ukiyo-e; a technique of woodblock paintings and prints that Hokusai would later be good at. Ukiyo-e, as exercised by artists like Katsukawa Shunsho focused on representations of the courtesans and the Kabuki actors that were very much celebrated in Japan’s cities from 1790 to 1800.
A Career Filled with Changes
When he turned to be 19 years of age, Katsushika Hokusai’s name changed for the very first time the moment he was christened Shunro by his sensei. It was through this identity that he made a publication of his very first prints; a group of pictures of Kabuki actors released in the year 1779. For the ten years that he managed to work in Shunsho’s studio, Katsushika Hokusai was married to his very first wife, about whom very little is remembered save for the fact that she died in the course of the 1790s. He got betrothed to and married again in the year 1797, even though his second wife also died after a short while. He managed to get three daughters and two sons with these two wives; his last born daughter identified as Oi or Ei ended up as an artist.
Experimenting with Art
Once Shunsho died in the year 1793, Hokusai started veering off from ukiyo-e and started experimenting with other styles of art such as a couple of European styles he saw on Dutch and Copper engravings he was able to get (Bailey 11). The fact that he always wanted to learn more made him be expelled from Shunsho School because it was discovered that he secretly took lessons from the neighboring Kano school. After he was expelled, the artist said that he had no regrets and that his former schools did him a disservice.
Legacy and Death
Overall, it is worth mentioning that the artist Katsushika Hokusai died in the year 1849 at a ripe age of 88 years. He was buried by his family members in Edo, Japan. Edo was located in what is now known as Tokyo. At the time of his death, Katsushika Hokusai was aware of the situation and asked in vain for heaven to give him ten more years or five so that he could make more paintings.
The Dragon of Smoke Escaping From Mt. Fuji
Description, Formal Analysis, and Interpretation
When he painted this particular picture Katsushika Hokusai referred to himself as Gakyo Rojin Manji. The English interpretation of this is (The Old Man Mad about Art). The Dragon of Smoke Escaping from Mt. Fuji inspired Katsushika Hokusai to produce One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, another meaningful landscape series. After the creation of The Dragon of Smoke Escaping from Mt. Fuji, the artist wrote a postscript to his work making it clear that natural features such as Mt. Fuji have always awed him (Gookin 29). He further adds that upon reaching the age of 50 he made a decision to draw and paint the physical features that struck him from attender age.
In this very picture, a dragon comes out from a thick and black smoke that is circling Mount Fuji. The dragon and the smoke have the same representation; the smoke being the route through which the dragon has travelled to run away from. On a different note, the mountain remains pristinely white and covered in snow. Smaller mountains in the foreground and a very minute grove of trees show just how big Mt. Fuji is; unaffected by the dragon that is running away.
Katsushika Hokusai, through this picture, shows his mastery of evincing an almost spiritual reverence for the beauty and majesty of Mt. Fuji, which stands as a fortress at the very centre of the painting, giving the dragon permission to run away.
It was characteristic of Katsushika Hokusai to paint pictures that depicted subjects that affected him directly. As such, in The Dragon of Smoke Escaping From Mt. Fuji the artist brands a exhibition of the surroundings that surrounds him. He even passes the message that a dragon (many a time taken as a religious symbol) cannot be confined to something as large as Mt. Fuji. The dragon was an animal totem useful to the artist just as it was to the majority of people in the Far East.
The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife
Description, Formal Analysis, and interpretation
The dream of the fisherman’s wife is also recognized as Diver and Two Octopuses or Girl Diver and Octopuses. It comprises a design printed on a woodblock and is one of Katsushika Hokusai’s most famous works. The work is factored in Kinoe no Komatsu; a three-volume publication of shunga erotica that was released in the year 1814. It is worth mentioning that “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife” is one of Katsushika Hokusai’s most acclaimed shunga design. The work depicts a youthful ama diver that is involved sexually with a pair of octopuses.
This painting was intended by Katsushika Hokusai to be an erotica piece within machinations of the ukiyo-e genre. The image shows a woman (probably a shell diver) entwined in the arms of two octopuses. The greater one of the two mollusks carries out cunnilingus on the woman, whereas the little one who is his child helps a great deal by caressing the left breast and lips of the woman. Within the text above the painting, the creatures and the woman show their shared sexual pleasure from the experience (Talerico 55).
It is worth mentioning that this painting fits the description of a far-fetched fantasy image; with powerfully volumetric forms and coloring that is very bright. In addition to that, the painting presents the vivid sensation that we are directly witnessing the occurrence, as the tentacles of the octopus seem to writhe and slither before our very eyes.
The idea of the diving woman and the pairing octopus was not originally brought forth by Katsushika Hokusai. About three decades earlier the artist Kitao Shigamasa painted a resembling pair in his erotic publication (Inaga 83). One reason why Katsushika Hokusai painted this picture is that he based the subject of his paintings on everything that happened around him. In many ways than one, the artist makes use of art the same way a poet would make use of oral literature. In other words, the artist showed the rest of the world just how sexually aware the Japanese are when it came to matters of the bedroom. Even though the idea of this artwork is majorly abstract, it still remains relevant because sex is a human subject.
Why I chose the artist
There are several reasons as to why I picked Katsushika Hokusai as my artist of choice to study. The most profound reasons as to why I chose him are because his artworks, although traditionally Japanese had and still have a profound and indelible effect on art in Europe. The prints of Hokusai’s work are a representation of hope, stark beauty, stoicism, and ingenuity; what’s more, the imagery that comes with all of his paintings is etched onto our collective consciousness. Even though for some time Hokusai was perceived as vulgar, under the interpretations of the imperial literati, the world appreciated his works. The appreciation of Katsushika Hokusai's work was mostly evident in the west where the artist's delineation of space with line and color, as opposed to the use of one-point perspective, would have an impact that is revolutionary.
In the course of his lifetime and even after his death, works made by Katsushika Hokusai that proved to be very influential are his pictures and outlines of human figures and beasts of the field. The landscapes have never been well accepted by contemporary painters and audiences. Having seen his many sketches of fish, sumo wrestlers, birds, geisha, and everyday city dwellers, and having witnessed through his work the inspiration for his drastic depictions of ladies in fin-de-scièle; I must have chosen the artist because I am awed by his works.
Works Cited
Bailey, Bradley Michael. "Time Flies: Hokusai's Missing Crane." Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2007): 154-159.
Gookin, Frederick W. "Color-Prints by Katsushika Hokusai." Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago (1907-1951) 24.2 (1930): 24-23.
Inaga, Shigemi. "The Making of Hokusai's Reputation in the Context of Japonisme." Nichibunken Japan Review (2003): 77-100.
Keyes, Roger. "Hokusai's Illustrations for the" 100 Poems"." Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 10 (1983): 311-329.
Talerico, Danielle. "Interpreting Sexual Imagery in Japanese Prints: A Fresh Approach to Hokusai's" Diver and Two Octopi"." impressions 23 (2001): 24-41.
