THE ART OF KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI

The Japanese artist known in the west as Katsushika Hokusai was known by many different names during his lifetime - conservative estimates suggest in excess of 30. Apparently this practice was widespread among the artists of the period but nobody was quite as enthusiastic about it as Hokusai. And we should strictly refer to him anyway as Katsushika, as Japanese names are back to front from our perspective . But I’m sticking with Hokusai here to avoid yet more confusion. So having cleared that up let’s take a look at one of the greatest printmakers and artists of all time. And a small but telling correction. The little figures in the boats in The Great Wave are not in fact depictions of the dead (as I had always understood them to be from somewhere of other) although given the size of the wave they might soon be heading in that direction. And there's another mistake - at about 4.30 I give the year as 1911 and it should of course be 1811