Red and White Plum Branches with Bush Warblers, 1910s- org. 1800s
Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was born in the Katsushika ward of Honjo district of Edo. During his life he held over thirty names. He was first called Tokitaro, then Tetsuzo while he was young. He was the adopted son of Nakajima Ise, a mirror-polisher for the Shogun’s court. As a young teenager, he became an assistant in a bookshop where he trained as a block cutter. This is where he learned print design. Katsukawa Shonsho (1726-92) the great ukiyo-e artist of Kabuki actor prints, became his master. Skilled at depicting actor prints, Hokusai took the name and style of his master-signing his prints from this time with Katsukawa Shunro.
In the 1780s Hokusai tried to change styles-from depicting Kabuki actors, to designs based on Chinese legends as well as pictures of women. Nishimuraya Yohachi, the famous printing firm, picked up a few of these and through this, Hokusai’s name began to gain fame. Through his connections with this firm, Hokusai was able to work and study with artists outside the Katsukawa School. He became a pupil of Tawaraya Sori (active 1764-80). At this time Hokusai starting using the name Sori.
Around the 1790s, Hokusai began working in a new print medium called surimono, printed poems written by nobles, with illustrations accompanying them. These were single sheets, but he also made albums of Kyoka poetry. For these he worked in a new, innovative style. His subject matter was the Edo countryside. He signed these works both with the name Sori and Hokusai Sori. By 1798 he changed his name to Hokusai and signed his prints Sori aratame Hokusai, or Sori changing his name to Hokusai. His many series, including “Amusements of the Eastern Capital” (1799), “Famous Places of the Capital in One View” (1800), “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” (1831-2), “Going the Rounds the Waterfalls in all Provinces” (1830s), “Eight Views of the Ryukyu Islands” (1830s), and “Large Flowers” (1830s), would be highly influential works to later ukiyo-e artists such as Hiroshige.
Hokusai had a number of pupils, having achieved great fame for his landscapes and illustrations to popular novellas. His pupils often took on their master’s name- adding Hoku to their own. These pupils included Totoya Hokkei (1780-1850), and Katsushika Taito II (active 1810-50). At this point in his career, Hokusai was signing his work as Katsushika Hokusai, and he made his first work that was meant to provide instruction in drawing in the Katsushika style- the ten volume set of around six hundred pages of prints called “Hokusai manga.”