The eighteenth century in Japan was a time of innovation, social change and upheaval. The art world was going through a period of hectic innovation. This was the ideal environment for someone who was intellectually curious, with a restless imagination, to draw inspiration.
Hokusai lived and worked in different districts of Tokyo, then known as Edo, from 1760-1849. At fifteen he was an apprenticed wood block cutter. In his introduction to "Hokusai" Gian Carlo Calza quotes Degas : Hokusai "is not just one artist among others in the Floating World. He is an island, a continent, a whole world in himself”.
Less than ten years after his death, he was already a legendary figure in the west, particularly in France where his prints had a fundamental role in the popular rise of Japanese culture, art and philosophy (or Japonism). His influence can be seen in the works of artists such as Manet, Degas, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Seurat.
Initially, Hokusai worked within a tradition called Ukiyo-e, which centred upon prints of the actors and courtesans of the Yoshiwara pleasure district. He went on to develop a style that was entirely personal but was influenced by tradition and an awareness of Chinese and Western art.
Hokusai’s work covers many styles and subjects. When he felt he had completely mastered one, he would move onto the next. When we look at the range of his work, it feels like we are not looking at one but many artists. This illusion is made stronger because, with each transition, Hokusai would give up his art name and seals (often handing them to a worthy pupil) before moving on and taking a new name. There are five major names corresponding to important transitions and thirty or so art names which are more or less occasional. What constantly emerges from his work is the sense of a forceful personality which could not be contained.
Rather than remain tied to a feudal lord, school or social clan, he expressed his individuality - something that must have only been possible because of his iron will and skill as an artist.
The polychrome prints in this exhibition were largely created under the name Iitsu which he took on his sixtieth birthday. It was at this time that he created The 36 Views of Mount Fuji. They are very innovative, as they merge Japanese, Chinese and Western influences. They show his deep interest in the moods of nature. In these prints, Hokusai is expressing the mysterious relationship that he felt existed between nature and the supernatural. He is also concerned with views and viewpoints and how he could use perspective to the best effect. He has the ability to make the viewer forget about the artist’s choice of view point. This makes the viewer feel swept up in the midst of things - as if we are part of the landscape, not outside it.
In his usual, rather overblown manner, Hokusai expresses what he was trying to embody when approaching his subject. “Those who desire to attain The Way must imbue their hearts with the spirit of the four seasons and master the workings of creation.”
Hokusai gave nature the same dignity accorded previously to representing humanity and he did it using the most widespread, down-to-earth, art form: the woodcut. This interest by his publishers in landscape views happily coincided with the rise of tourism within Japan.
There is another happy coincidence at work in the inspiration for these prints and Hokusai’s depiction of the sea: the arrival in Japan of the first supplies of Prussian Blue ink to his printmakers. It is possible to see Hokusai revelling in the possibilities for using this colour as he makes his paintings to give to the woodblock cutters.
The seascape prints included in this exhibition shed light onto one small aspect of Hokusai’s output, and his ubiquitous creativity is best summed up with a story which is probably apocryphal:
In 1839 when Hokusai was eighty years old he woke to a fire in his house. On waking up to find his house in flames, he grabs his brushes, not his paintings, and flees.
“It was not in his nature to worry about things already produced, however precious, but to lose the means to continue painting was altogether something else.” (G.C. Calza ibid)