Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾 北斎 (Japanese, 1760–1849) was a visionary of the Edo period, best known for his woodblock print series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Trained in the ukiyo-e tradition, Hokusai elevated the genre beyond portraits of courtesans and actors, turning his gaze to landscapes, folklore, and everyday life with a masterful blend of line, rhythm, and perspective. His restless creativity led him through multiple name changes and stylistic evolutions over the course of seven decades of prolific output.
Hokusai's work bridged the gap between popular and elite art, influencing not only his contemporaries in Japan but also Western artists such as Monet, Van Gogh, and Whistler. His prints convey the themes of nature's grandeur, human resilience, and spiritual reflection, rendered with dynamism and meticulous attention to detail. Even in his final years, he proclaimed a desire to keep improving, saying, "If Heaven will grant me ten more years… I shall become a real painter."
