In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1760
- Died
- 1849
- Birthplace
- Edo (Tokyo), Japan
- Country
- Japan
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Prints, books and painting
Why this life matters
His long career connected brush drawing to commercial print production, illustrated instruction and late painting.
Timeline
Key moments
Drawing manuals
Hokusai Manga.
Illustrated books
First two Fuji volumes.
Later painting
Visits to Takai Kōzan.
An artist with changing names
Hokusai trained with Katsukawa Shunshō and worked under the name Shunrō. After leaving that school, he adopted Tawaraya Sōri and later many other working names. These changes accompanied an unusually long and varied practice.
A Sainsbury Institute report of curator Alfred Haft’s lecture describes early block-cutting experience before his entry into Shunshō’s studio.
Books and visual instruction
He illustrated Takizawa Bakin’s fiction and published Hokusai Manga from 1814. The manuals gathered models for drawing rather than constituting modern narrative manga. Book illustration remained a major activity alongside single-sheet prints.
Sources for this section: [2]
Mount Fuji and later painting
In his seventies, he produced the colour-print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji followed as illustrated books: the museum’s first two volumes are dated 1834 and 1835. He continued painting in later life.
The lecture report describes his 1840s visits to the patron Takai Kōzan in Nagano and his continued refinement of painting. He died in 1849.
A surviving production path
Drawings intended for The Great Picture Book of Everything survived because that book was not published. Their survival exposes a normally destructive stage: block-ready drawings were pasted to wood and cut through during preparation. The project adds to his printmaking legacy.
Sources for this section: [3]
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Katsushika Hokusai
- Did he use one working name?
- He used many working names.
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Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
