Katsushika Hokusai is a Japanese artist, whose works epitomize the country's ardor for minimalist artistry. He rendered at least 100 images of the Mount Fuji and published 4,000 sketches in one book. However, most know him for a single painting, The Great Wave off Kanagawa.
One might wonder how a flat, two-toned painting can be straightforward, refined, and, yet, quite intense. These words aptly describe his style of harmoniously balancing elements within a composition. As though to demonstrate, one needs only a step closer. Revealed to the onlooker are intricate details, skillfully veiled so as not to dominate nor contest their value over the hues, forms, or the artist's technique.
Despite his good repute even among Western contemporaries (including Vincent van Gogh), he is noted for his personal censure:
From the age of 6 I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was 50 I had published a universe of designs. But all I have done before the the age of 70 is not worth bothering with. At 75 I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am 80 you will see real progress. At 90 I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At 100, I shall be a marvelous artist. At 110, everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokusai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing.'A true craftsman, only death rendered him powerless and embittered—parting him from his sole life purpose and true love. His famed resentful utterance in his deathbed:
If only Heaven will give me just another ten years... Just another five more years, then I could become a real painter.
