Discover Katsushika Hokusai: 10 Surprising Fun Facts About the Legendary Japanese Artist

1. The Name-Changing Superstar

Katsushika Hokusai, the original "taking on a new persona" superstar before pop divas made it cool: Hokusai was known by various names throughout his artistic career, such as "Tawaraya Sōri," "Hokusai Tomisa," "Katsushika Hokusai," "Taito," and "Gakyō Rōjin Manji," however, the exact number of times he changed his name remains inconclusive.
Source => katsushikahokusai.org

2. Master of Artistic Disguise

Sure to give the greatest cat burglars and con artists a run for their money with his affinity for aliases, Katsushika Hokusai traded in his catnips for chameleonic paintbrushes: Throughout his 70-year career, Hokusai adopted over 30 different names while mastering and dabbling in various artistic styles such as painting, woodblock printing, and creating woodblock printed books.
Source => museum.maidstone.gov.uk

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=> Fun Facts about Art

3. Mystery Artist Origins

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the craftiest of them all? Hokusai, of course! But not because he was the son of a shogun's mirror-maker: In fact, his dad's profession remains a mystery, and Hokusai's mother might have been a concubine. So, young Hokusai learned his artistic chops through painting and printmaking, with only a hint of his father's mirror-design influence.
Source => christies.com

4. Hokusai's Pre-Modern Manga

Before Netflix and chill, there was Hokusai and sketch: Katsushika Hokusai's "Hokusai Manga" features over 4,000 drawings of daily life, animals, plants, and people - complete with a humorous twist, making it a pre-modern Japanese manga for the ages.
Source => web-japan.org

5. The Late Bloomer of Art

If slow and steady wins the race, Katsushika Hokusai climbed Mount Fuji in a weathered pair of clogs, a smudge of squid ink on his cheek, and a paintbrush waving triumphantly in the air: After a lifetime of artistic trials and tribulations, Hokusai finally found fame at the ripe age of 72 with his sensational series of Ukiyo-e prints, Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, proving that true creative genius knows no age limit and success is always a stone's throw, or a paint stroke, away.
Source => orientalsouls.com

6. Da Vinci's FOMO Cousin

If Leonardo da Vinci had a quirky cousin from Japan with a severe case of FOMO– the Fear of Missing Out– on canvas, it would be this guy: Katsushika Hokusai was such a tireless painter that he'd change his name more often than a chameleon on a rainbow and even called himself "a man mad about painting." His passion for art began at the age of 6 and spanned over six decades, culminating in iconic works like "The Great Wave Off the Coast of Kanagawa" and a portfolio brimming with thousands of wildly diverse masterpieces.
Source => si.edu

7. Indecisive Identity Crisis

If there were a competition for the art world's most indecisive identity crisis, Katsushika Hokusai would be a serious challenger: This creative powerhouse changed his artistic name over ten times during his life and showcased his talents through six distinct stylistic periods, creating an array of works that spanned from iconic landscape prints to captivating portraits of actors and enchanting paintings.
Source => ukiyo-e.org

8. High on Creativity, Sushi Optional

Picture this: an ancient Japanese artist, high on life (or perhaps just too much sushi), riding a tsunami of creativity that sprawled across his entire career, leaving a trail of artistic gems in his wake. Now, hang tight for the big wave: Katsushika Hokusai was such a prolific artist that he crafted over 30,000 masterpieces throughout his lifetime, including the iconic "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" – a woodcut print that continues to make a splash in the world of art to this day.
Source => c-span.org

9. Midlife Art Crisis

While most people have a midlife crisis that ends in a new sports car or a risky hairstyle, Katsushika Hokusai had a "life's not long enough for art" moment and went full Grumpy Old Man on his own masterpieces: At 75, he stated that nothing he created before the age of 70 was worth any attention and, believing he'd only just started to scratch the surface of understanding nature's creatures by 73, Hokusai aimed to achieve divine comprehension and mastery by the age of 100.
Source => jamanetwork.com

10. Head in the Mount Fuji Clouds

When people say "get your head out of the clouds," Katsushika Hokusai clearly disagreed, as he stayed immersed in daydreams of Mount Fuji: Hokusai's series "One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji," created around 1849, consists of three woodblock printed books showcasing mesmerizing depictions of the iconic mountain from various angles, solidifying it as a masterpiece of Japanese art and a testament to Hokusai's remarkable talent.
Source => metmuseum.org