Katsushika Hokusai is an artist born on roughly October 31, 1760 and died on May 10, 1849. His father an artist who focused on creating art around the outside of mirrors is said to be his influence when he starts painting around the age of six. At the age of twelve his father sent him to work at a book shop and during these times the books were on wooden blocks and used to entertain the upper and middle class. He became an apprentice to a wood carver and continued to work there till eighteen and after he was allowed into the studio of Katsukawa Shunshō to be taught by him. Here he began working on his first pieces of art mainly of Kabuki actors. Soon after he was married but she soon passed away and remarried seven years later to have the same thing happen with her passing away. Now left with five …show more content…
After this epidemic he began to move away from studios and portraits. He now started into his landscapes. It started with Eight Views of Edo and Famous Sights of the Eastern Capital. Now starting to grow in popularity he also used his skill and interesting ideas to advertise. At a Tokyo festival it is said he brought a painting six hundred feet tall of the Buddhist priest Daruma using a broom and buckets of ink. Another time he is put at a Shogun’s court where when competing against other artists he painted a blue line then chased a chicken with red paint on its feet and stated the image represents the Tatsuta River with maple leaves across it. From 1807 to 1811 he began a period of working mainly on illustrations in books. At Hongan-ji Nagoya Betsuin a large Buddhist temple he painted Daruma again on a large 18 by 10 meter piece of paper and amazed the crowd watching. During the 1820s Hokusai reached a height of fame. Even with Japan’s isolation his pieces of art mainly the 36 views of Mount Fuji that later had another 10 pieces added to it by him was well known. After this time he began creating pieces of birds and