Katsushika Hokusai

Hokusai, Katsushika (1760–1849), Japanese painter, printmaker, and book illustrator, greatest master of the Japanese ukiyo-e (popular) school. Interested in every aspect of life, Hokusai worked under a number of different names in a variety of styles, producing over 30,000 drawings of great imagination, compositional mastery, and technical excellence. The most famous collections are 36 Views of Fuji (1823–29) and Mangwa, or Ten Thousand Sketches (1814–18), many of which were admired in Paris and London as well as in the Far East.