Katsushika Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai, is an 18th century Japanese painter, draftsman and engraver, specialist in ukiyo-e, as well as author of popular writings, especially known under the name of Hokusai, or his nickname of Gakyōjin, literally "Old Fool of drawing ".

During his seventy-year career he produced a considerable body of work of some 3,000 color prints, illustrations for over 200 books, hundreds of drawings and over 1,000 paintings. He quickly abandoned the narrow subject matter traditionally associated with the "floating world" (ukiyo-e) school of which he was a part, such as images of popular actors and courtesans.

The Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (1831 – 1833) actually numbering 46 prints, of which The Great Wave off Kanagawa (1831) are his best-known works.

His work influenced many European artists, in particular Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley, and more broadly the artistic movement called Japonism.