Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese artist ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. In his time he was Japan’s leading expert on Chinese paintingBorn in Edo (now Tokyo) Hokusai is best-known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the iconic and internationally recognized print The Great Wave off Kanagawa created during the 1820s. Hokusai created the “Thirty-Six Views” both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. It was this series specifically The Great Wave print and Fuji in Clear Weather that secured Hokusai’s fame both within Japan and overseas. It was The Great Wave print that initially received and continues to receive acclaim and popularity in the Western world
