Katsushika Hokusai was one of Japan’s most influential artists and a master of the Ukiyo-e movement. Born in Edo (modern Tokyo), Hokusai began drawing as a child and later trained under ukiyo-e master Katsukawa Shunshō. Over a remarkably long career, he constantly reinvented his artistic style, producing thousands of prints, paintings, sketches, and illustrated books.
Hokusai transformed ukiyo-e from a genre focused mainly on actors and courtesans into one that celebrated landscapes, everyday life, plants, and animals. His most famous series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, includes the iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa, now one of the most recognizable images in world art. Deeply fascinated by movement, perspective, and nature, he combined traditional Japanese aesthetics with elements of Western artistic techniques. Hokusai remained passionately devoted to art throughout his life, believing true mastery came only with age and experience. His work profoundly influenced European Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists, including Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest printmakers in art history.
