For our last day in Tokyo we had beautiful weather to go along with the beautiful woodblock prints that are part of the collection at the Sumida Hokusai Museum.
On Friday I talked about the exhibit at the Tokyo National Museum that featured Tsutaya Jūzaburō, master printer of the Edo Era. The most famous artist that he published was Katsushika Hokusai, master of the woodblock print.
Hokusai first became well known in the early 19th century from a series of thirteen sketchbooks that captured daily life in Japan. The museum had all thirteen on exhibit. The humorous drawings reminded me of a Japanese Pickwick Papers.
Hokusai continued producing woodblock prints until his death at 90. He is most well known for his print “The Great Wave Off Of Kanagawa.”
When he turned 70 he began a woodblock project he called “Thirty-six views of Mt. Fuji” which he completed five years later.
His work was introduced in Paris salons during the 1890s and influenced Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Degas. When it comes to woodblock prints, he is unrivaled.
The museum also had some of his early scroll paintings which, like in this raid on a village In the picture below, had all the action of a Brueghel scene.
Hakusai? Hiroshige? Both great. Not sure who is better known in the west.