Katsushika Hokusai 1760-1849 : Chronology of the Edo period

1603
Start of the Edo period. Establishment of the Bakufu Tokugawa.

1612
Christianity is outlawed.

1615
The storming of Osaka Castle, the demise of the Toyotomi clan.

1635
Establishment of the system of alternating residences for daimyō or feudal lords (sankin-kōtai).

1639
Japan is closed to foreigners (sakoku).

1641
The Dutch are given permission to open a trading post on the island of Deshima, near Nagasaki.

1643
Death of the painter Tawaraya Sotatsu, founder of the Rinpa School.

c. 1666
Publication of the book Tales of the Floating World (Ukiyo monogatari)by Asai Ryōi.

1691
Matsuo Bashō publishes Monkey’s Raincoat (Sarumino).

Prior to 1694 Hishikawa Moronobu creates the first prints in black and white on loose sheets of paper.

1701-1702
Ogata Kōrin of the Rinpa School paints the Irises screen.

1703
Incident of the Forty-Seven Rōnins.

1707
Mount Fuji erupts.

1720
Authorization to import foreign books except those dealing with Christianity.

1724
Death of the dramatist and poet Chikamatsu Monzaemon.

c. 1765
Suzuki Harunobu invents the multi-colour print known as a “brocade print” (nishiki-e).

c. 1768
Katsukawa Shunshō renews the genre of the kabuki actor portrait.

1782-1787
Japan is struck by several major famines.

1790
Tightening of printing laws and introduction of the censorship seal.

1794
Sharaku creates his portraits of actors published by Tsutaya Jūzaburō.

1804
Utamaro publishes Annals of the Green Houses, an ensemble of portraits of Yoshiwara courtesans.

1828
Death of the poet Kobayashi Issa.

1834-1837
Famines occur during the Tenpō era.

1853
Arrival of Commodore Perry’s “black ships”.

1856-1858
Hiroshige publishes One Hundred Famous Views of Edo.

1858
Signing of the “unequal treaties”.

1868
End of the Edo period. Advent of the Emperor Meiji.

1. 1760-1777

The early years

Born in the Honjō-Warigesui district in eastern Edo (Tokyo) on 23 September 1760, Hokusai was adopted at the age of three by artisan Nakajima Isei, an official mirror maker for the shogunate. Named Tokitarō, he was later given the name Tetsuzō when he turned nine. Initially a polisher for his adoptive father, as a teenager, he became an apprentice to a wood engraver, learning the process of making prints and books. His keen and precocious taste for drawing—he claims to have begun drawing at the age of six—was expressed amidst the creative and stimulating context of the printed arts of the mid-Edo period (1603-1868).

2. 1778-1794

Formative years

At the age of nineteen, he became a student in the studio of Katsukawa Shunshō (1726-1793), a popular ukiyo-e artist, known for his prints depicting beautiful women (bijin-ga) and portraits of famous kabuki actors, a genre he was able to renew. Signing his first works Shunrō (meaning “the brilliance of spring”), Hokusai produced numerous prints on a variety of subjects (warriors, beautiful women, remarkable sites, sumo wrestlers, etc.), and portraits of actors for kibyōshi (illustrated books with a yellow cover for adults combining caricatures and humour). Only a few rare paintings from this period have survived, in the uki-e (floating image) style incorporating Western effects of perspective. Although faithful to the Katsukawa School in the style of his master Shunshō, Hokusai left the studio shortly after his mentor’s death in 1793 for unknown reasons, although possibly due to a quarrel of some kind. His touchy character was well-known.

3. 1794-1804

The Sōri period

After leaving the Katsukawa School, Hokusai changed his name to Sōri upon being made head of Tawaraya Sōri’s studio, active between 1760 and 1780. This name is associated with the famous Rinpa School founded in the 17th century by Tawaraya Sōtatsu and Hon’ami Kōetsu, and whose great master was Ogata Kōrin (1658-1716). Although he was initially influenced by the decorative Rinpa style, Hokusai quickly freed himself from it to create his own Sōri style, characterized by a certain sadness and gentle melancholy. Moving away from the world of ukiyo-e in favour of a classical career as a painter, he was then closely linked to the world of kyōka (a style of witty poetry known as “mad poetry”). He authored poems and executed numerous non-commercial prints (surimono) and picture books for literary circles, including the Asakusa circle, composed of writers and scholars. At the same time, he began experimenting with the use of Western perspective and chiaroscuro. In 1798, he abandoned the name Sōri and became Hokusai Tokimasa in reference to the bodhisattva Myōken, a deification of the North Star (hokushin) and tutelary figure of the Nichiren Buddhist sect of which Hokusai was a follower.

4. 1805-1811

A popular illustrator

This new period in Hokusai’s life was tremendously successful. He produced numerous images for popular literature (yomihon), notably illustrating the adventure novels of the famous author Kyokutei Bakin (1767-1848), including Strange Tales of the Crescent Moon. His mastery of drawing, black ink, and its many variations revolutionized this literary genre. Hokusai was also known for his eccentric productions for temples, where he executed gigantic portraits of the Bodhidharma Daruma. These years were also marked by an abundant production of works, especially paintings, and saw the beginning of a new phase in the artist’s career, that of manuals. Hokusai adopted several pen names depending on the works produced: Katsushika Hokusai for example, in reference to the district where he was born, and Taito, from Taihokuto, meaning “the star of the little bear”.

5. 1812-1829

The Manga years

Hokusai’s studio flourished, with many apprentices working for the master, and his teaching methods and style were copied all over Japan. Hokusai produced countless drawing manuals for artists, poets, and artisans, as well as children. The first of these, published in 1810, was entitled Basic Instruction in Sketching and was followed in 1814 by the initial volume of the famous Manga. Four thousand drawings over fifteen volumes were produced and printed, with the last volume being published posthumously (1878).

The Manga project was inspired by a trip to Nagoya to visit Maki Bokusen (1775-1824), a samurai aesthete. While visiting the former, Hokusai produced several hundred sketches which he referred to as Manga (“drawings with a brush”). Compiled together, these first drawings form the initial volume of the Denshin kaishu series, the Hokusai manga (Transmitting the Spirit, Revealing Form of Things: Picture Album of Drawings at One Stroke). This was followed by other manuals: Album of Drawings in Three Ways (1816), Quick Pictorial Dictionary (1817), and Album of Drawings with One Stroke (1823).

Hokusai forged a new name for himself: Iitsu (meaning “one again”), to coincide with his sixtieth birthday and the end of the long calendar cycle of the Zodiac, and the start of another. He was extremely successful and his surimono production, notably his series on shells in 1821, had reached an unparalleled artistic level. However, on a personal level, Hokusai encountered several difficulties: the death of one of his daughters and his second wife, his grandson was crippled by debt, and he himself suffered a stroke. His daughter Ōi, who was also a painter, came to work with him at this time.

6. 1830-1834

The Wave and Mount Fuji

In the early 1830s, Hokusai returned to the forefront with the publication of several innovative series: Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji in 1830-1833, featuring the famous Under the Wave off Kanagawa, A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Provinces in 1833, Eight Views of the Ryūkyū Islands, and Remarkable Views of Famous Bridges in Various Provinces in 1834. These publications would revolutionize the landscape genre in Japanese art and the extreme popularity of these works with the public inscribed this theme in the art of ukiyo-e. The publication of the illustrated three-volume book One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji, a masterpiece of the art of printmaking, in 1834, brought this exceptional artistic period to a close. To sign this opus, Hokusai chose a new name for himself, Manji (“ten thousand years”), preceded by Gakyō Rōjin (“the old man mad about drawing”). A red seal in the shape of the sacred mountain so dear to the artist began to appear on his works.

7. 1835-1849

Obuse and the last paintings

Despite publishing the series One Hundred Poems Explained by a Nurse and Panoramic View of the Famous Places of China, Hokusai moved away from the art of nishiki-e to devote himself fully to painting, perfecting his technique and representation of his subjects. Beginning in 1842, Hokusai made several stays in Obuse in Shinano Province, near the present-day city of Nagano, at the invitation of his friend and patron Takai Kōzan (1806-1883). He produced several major works, including the decorations for the festival floats for the Higashimachi and Kanmachi districts and the impressive phoenix ceiling of the Ganshō-in Buddhist temple. At the end of his life, Hokusai signed his paintings with the Hyaku (“one hundred”) seal, signifying his intention to continue to work for as long as possible, becoming, in his own words, a true painter. Hokusai died at the age of ninety on the eighteenth day of the fourth month of the second year of the Kaei era (10 April 1849). His ashes were placed in the Asakusa-Seikyōji temple in Edo (Tokyo).