Favorite Artists 10 - Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) remains an enormous presence the world of art. His work in woodblock printing (a Japanese art known as ukiyo-e) was immensely popular in the closed Japanese society he lived in, selling huge volumes of prints as series, as individual items, and as books. He worked steadily and productively from his youth to nearly ninety and is said to have lamented in his last years that if he could only be given more time he would eventually learn to draw. After Japan opened to the West in the mid-19th century, prints and books of ukiyo-e by Hokusai and is fellow masters trickled into Europe, where Japonism, the rage for Japanese arts and culture, influenced entire movements, from Impressionists like Mary Cassatt to Post-Impressionists including Gauguin and Lautrec, to incorporate flat planes of color and strong outlining into oil paintings and prints.\

Katsushika Hokusai, "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, ukiyo-e, 1831

Hokusai himself was an unusual person. He changed his name perhaps thirty times, many more than the usual custom of the times. The first name we know him by describes the part of Edo where he was born, and the second means "North Light Studio," a neat allusion to his work. He was related in some way to a craftsman working for the Shogun, and so had access to excellent education and the upper classes of Japan, which doubtless was helpful to him. After working in several areas he eventually learned block cutting and became apprenticed to Katsukawa Shunshō a master of ukiyo-e whose work focused on courtesans and actors in kabuki. He worked there several years (and changed his name to Shunro), then in other studios until establishing his own. Ever restless, he moved more than ninety times in his life, reportedly because he never cleaned and simply walked away when his quarters became to dirty and cluttered. But through all of those moves he produced enormous amounts of work, including prints, drawings, and books. His most famous work is undoubtedly The Great Wave Off Kanagawa (above), one of his Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji, which is still very popular in the West.

Hokusai, "Self-portrait at 72"

Favorite artists strike a chord, giving pleasure but challenging me, showing what can be done but requiring study to see how. Hokusai was a master of line, which translates into woodcuts easily, but more importantly despite his early upbringing in the Japanese upper classes he was a keen observer of the common people and their endlessly fascinating lives. My favorite of his works is the enormous, multivolume Manga (literally, sketches). These were enormously popular during Hokusai's lifetime and demonstrate his sympathy and love for peasants, vendors, sumo wrestlers, Buddhist monks, fishermen, courtesans, and all of the others. During the early 19th century, these sold briskly in multiple editions.

For those with more interest James Michener's Hokusai Sketchbooks is an excellent introduction. Michener compares Hokusai to the European Pieter Breughel, whose empathy toward the common people was similar. Michener comments that Hokusai's people are "tangled up in life," going about their daily affairs as he observes them with love. He shows us what men and women were like in those times in his place, Edo. Considering what we know of history, Hokusai's vision of the way people lived is a vibrant one. What wouldn't we would give for such drawings of Ancient Rome or Greece?

Hoff, "Saisoro," digital, after Hokusai

Because he had such a dedication to drawing (one of his best names translates as Old Man Mad About Drawing), his work presents formidable opportunities and challenges for the student. In his self portrait above for example, his treatment of the figure and the folds of the cloak are fascinating. They clearly depict the garments and posture well, yet are not quite in the traditions of the West. During the last few years I've tried my hand at copying some of these works both digitally and with pen and ink. A fairly famous work, "Saisoro," shows an actor doing a traditional, stylized Asian dance more than a thousand years old. In the dance a decrepit old man is gathering berries, his limbs weak, his gait halting. He dresses in white, and always has a basket a walking stick. The entire dance is a comment and lament on aging. I copied Hokusai's print and it's coloring using Sketchbook and a Wacom tablet.

Many pages of the Manga are devoted to street life. In the copy to the left, I took only a small corner of a much larger page and copied these two figures as they hurry through a rainstorm. The near figure is trudging along carrying rice in baskets while the far one, head down and hurrying, is trying to stay dry. Throughout the books we see these sorts of deceptively simple yet masterful drawings. There are pages of sumo wrestlers, workmen, geisha, bathers, fishermen, priests, archers, samurai, and more. Hokusai's interest and vision is wide and engaging and keeps changing from page to page of the Manga. Besides street scenes, Hokusai drew many landscapes, plants, animals, and fanciful creatures as well. He explored how the wind and water behave and the structures of the earth.

Perhaps the best known of Hokusai's work is the series Thirty-six View of Mount Fuji, released in 1831. In each, the sacred mountain is visible, looming over the countryside and the people. Fuji-san is Japan for many, representing the solidity and eternity. In these views, everything changes but Fuji is eternal (and by implication, so is Japan). The best known of these prints is The Great Wave but it is worthwhile to study all of them. One of my favorites is "Tsukada Island," with Mount Fuji in the far distance beyond the island and shore, boats plying the deep blue waters. There are actually thirty-eight views in this series of prints and most are superior.

Studying the art of the rest of the world is a useful way to alter one's viewpoint or perhaps change focus, as many Europeans did more than a century ago during the heyday of Japonism. Certainly copying Hokusai's drawings has been useful to me.

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Previous in this series:
Favorite Artists
Favorite Artists 2--Chardin
Favorite Artists 3--Grant Wood
Favorite Artists 4--Diego Velazquez
Favorite Artists 5--Andrew Wyeth
Favorite Artists 6--Wayne Thiebaud 
Favorite Artists 7 - Edward Hopper
Favorite Artists 8- Nicolai Fechin
Favorite Artists 9- Rembrandt