Hokusai: the influential work of Japanese artist famous for 'the great wave' – in pictures

The work of Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), one of Japan’s most prolific and enduringly popular artists, are in Australia for the first time in a major exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. Hokusai produced a body of work comprising some of the most recognisable and reproduced images in the history of Asian art, most notably The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Two prints of this famous image will be on show at NGV alongside over 150 of Hokusai’s artworks, including his renowned series on Mt Fuji

• Hokusai is showing at the National Gallery of Victoria until 15 October

Main image: Photograph: NGV International

  • Fuji from Kanaya on the Tōkaidō, 1830-1834

    Many of Hokusai’s most famous images come from Thirty-six Views of Mt Fuji – a series comprised, in fact, of 46 prints, after an additional group of 10 compositions were added to the series due to the popularity of the originals. This print shows the Oi River, one of the widest and most difficult waterways to cross on the Tōkaidō Road, depicted as a treacherous spring torrent with a repeating pattern of surging water and foam. Because there was no bridge across the river, travellers had to be carried from one side to the other.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.

  • Fuji from Gotenyama at Shinagawa on the Tōkaidō, 1830-1834

    Another of the Fuji series, in this print we see the traditional festive occasion of a hanami (cherry-blossom viewing party), which to this day is a celebrated event throughout Japan. Outside a teahouse, people dance with folding fans and Mt Fuji rises into a blue sky.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.

  • Falling Mist Waterfall at Mount Kurokami in Shimotsuke Province, 1834-1835

    Kirifuri waterfall is one of the three famous waterfalls of the Nikkō area, about seven days’ walk north of Edo. In this print, one of a series on waterfalls, Kirifuri is split into three sections: in the first it falls vertically, as seen in the upper left; and in the second and third sections it cascades over and among rocks. Kirifuri means ‘falling mist’, which describes the soft and cooling sensation of the waterfall’s wide cascade, with splashing water at its base.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.

  • The great wave off Kanagawa, 1830-34

    One of Hokusai’s finest works, this print from the Fuji series is arguably the single most famous image in all Asian art. The horizon has been lowered to emphasise the monstrous wave towering above, its impending crash of water heightening a tension over the graceful lines of a diminutive Mt Fuji. One of two prints of the great wave on show in NGV’s exhibition, this one is from the collection of the Japan Ukiyo-e Museum, Matsumoto.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.

  • Waterwheel at Onden, 1830-1834

    Hokusai was fascinated with depicting movement and human invention, and believed that the labours of humble folk within nature were spiritual activities. In this print he has devoted almost half of the composition to the huge waterwheel of a mill, while a group of four people are focused on their work and pay no attention to Mt Fuji in the distance. During the Edo period there were several large waterwheels in the rural area of Onden, located between present-day Harajuku and Aoyama – now a region known for its nightclubs, fashion houses and expensive apartments.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.

  • The Amida Falls in the far reaches of the Kisokaidō Road, 1834-1835

    Amida waterfall is one of the most stylised, visually intriguing and dreamlike of all Hokusai’s creations. The waterfall derives its name from the most popular Buddhist deity in Japan, Amida Nyōrai, whose rounded slender shoulders and figure take a similar shape to the cascading water, and whose head, halo or third eye is thought to have a similar shape to the form of the circular hollow at the top of this print’s radical design.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.

  • South wind, clear sky, 1830-1834

    Also commonly known as Aka Fuji (Red Fuji), this work depicts Mt Fuji in a quintessentially Japanese asymmetrical design. A break in the clouds highlights the mountain’s appearance against the deep blue sky and emphasises the strength of the summit.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.

  • The ghost of Kohada Koheiji, c 1831

    From Hokusai’s ghost series, One Hundred Ghost Stories, this print depicts Kohada Koheiji, the male ghost of a struggling kabuki actor murdered at the behest of his unfaithful wife and her lover – a popular story during the Edo period. Here, the skeletal apparition of Koheiji, skin rotting and strands of hair waving in the breeze, slowly claws back a mosquito net and peers down at his killers with vengeful intent. It is believed that Koheiji haunted them relentlessly until they eventually took their own lives.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.

  • The suspension bridge on the border of Hida and Etchū provinces, c 1834

    Hokusai created a whole series of prints devoted to bridges – this one depicts a man and a woman dressed in humble attire traversing a narrow suspension bridge through a mythical landscape of vertical cliff faces and rocky pinnacles. Suspension bridges of this type were not uncommon and found in many mountainous regions. The perilous ravine crossing being made by the couple can be interpreted as a metaphor for the strength of the human relationship and the fragility of existence.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.

  • Laughing demoness, c. 1831

    Another of Hokusai’s ghost prints, here he has combined two terrifying creatures, hannya and yamauba, into one. Hannya are women who have been transformed into vengeful demons by the torments of jealousy and betrayal. Yamauba (mountain women) are old women who through misfortune or misdemeanour live alone in isolated mountain regions. Stories of yamauba in which a kindly old woman appears offering shelter, food and a place to sleep to weary travellers, only to pursue her passion for human flesh at the midnight hour, were popular among travellers during the Edo period.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.

  • Hodogaya on the Tōkaidō, 1830-1834

    This composition is well known for its theatrical setting in which travellers move like actors across a stage, and for the creative manner in which Mt Fuji is viewed between the vertical lines of red pine trees. Hodogaya is a district west of Yokohama and was the fourth post station on the Tōkaidō Road.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.

  • Filial son at Yōrō Waterfall, 1804-1805

    This painted silk scroll depicts a scene from the folktale The Enchanted Waterfall, about a diligent and humble woodcutter who collects kindling every day to exchange for funds to buy saké for his blind father. One day, after falling asleep in the mountains, the woodcutter awakes to the aroma of saké. Discovering a nearby waterfall had been transformed into a bubbling cascade of saké, he fills his travelling gourd and returns home to his father. Upon drinking the saké, his father’s eyesight and good health are returned.
    FOR GALLERY USE ONLY. The work of Japanese ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai, which will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2017.
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