“Cuckoo in flight”

Katsushika Hokusai

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Artist Name: Katsushika Hokusai
Title: “Cuckoo in flight”
Dimensions: painting：46.5×16.2㎝(a fan)
full length：125.0×61.4㎝
Medium: ink with colors on paper
Year: 1825
Description: Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) was one of the most celebrated ukiyo-e artists of the late Edo period.

At the age of nineteen, he became a disciple of Katsukawa Shunshō and made his debut in the art world under the name Katsukawa Shunrō. Thereafter, he repeatedly changed his art names—adopting names such as Sōri, Gakyōjin Hokusai, Taitō, Iitsu, and Gakyō Rōjin Manji—while continuing to produce paintings and prints for more than seventy years.

Unlike most artists of his time, Hokusai constantly explored new techniques and styles. After establishing a distinctive mode of expression, he would shift his focus to different subjects and genres according to each period of his career, continually reinventing himself.

Hokusai’s ukiyo-e prints also had a profound influence on Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Vincent van Gogh, as well as on the broader movement of Japonisme, particularly in France. For these reasons, Hokusai is highly esteemed worldwide as one of Japan’s most important artists.