Katsushika Hokusai (1760 - 1849)

JAPANESE WOODCUTS

Katsushika Hokusai (1760 - 1849) has produced around 30,000 drawings, paintings, and prints over seven decades. He created the Thirty-Six Views both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji. In his 70s, he began releasing this most famous landscape woodblock print series, which includes the iconic The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Hokusai also produced erotic art, (called Shunga in Japanese) which was usually executed in the woodblock print medium. Shunga was enjoyed by both men and women of all classes.