Katsushika Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai (c. 1760–1849) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist born in Edo, now Tokyo. At about eighteen he entered the studio of Katsukawa Shunshō and published his first prints in 1779. He worked under many names, and by 1800 he was using the name Hokusai. Early in his career he made portraits of actors and beauties, but he is remembered for moving ukiyo-e towards landscape and everyday life. His series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, produced in the early 1830s, includes The Great Wave off Kanagawa, probably the most recognised Japanese image in the world. He also produced One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji from 1834 and the Hokusai Manga sketchbooks, the first volume of which appeared in 1814. A fire in 1839 destroyed much of his work. He kept painting into his eighties and died in Edo in 1849, aged 88. His prints were admired in Europe and influenced artists such as Van Gogh and Monet.