Hokusai, << HOH ku `sy` or HAW koo `sy` >> (1760-1849) was a Japanese painter and designer of wood-block prints. Hokusai created an enormous number of paintings and prints using many styles and subjects, but he is best known for his landscape prints. Hokusai ranks with Hiroshige as the most famous Japanese landscape artist of the 1800’s. Hokusai created several series of prints from 1823 to 1835. One famous set of prints consists of scenes of Mount Fuji as seen from various points, both near and far.
Katsushika Hokusai was born in October 1760 in Edo (now Tokyo). He studied under Katsukawa Shunsho, a leading Japanese artist. Hokusai had a long career, but he produced most of his important work after the age of 60. Although his works were popular, Hokusai spent much of his life in poverty. He died on May 10, 1849.
In the 1850’s, after his death, some of Hokusai’s prints were displayed in the West. In the late 1800’s, they influenced some Western artists, including James A. M. Whistler, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
