Hokusai Reborn: Buddhist Deity on Dragon

This 2023 print belongs to Bull's ongoing Hokusai Reborn series, in which he recreates or interprets designs drawn from Katsushika Hokusai's vast body of work, applying his own carving and printing to subjects Hokusai sketched or painted but did not always realize as finished woodblock prints. A Buddhist deity riding or accompanied by a dragon draws on iconographic traditions linking protective deities — such as Benzaiten or the dragon-riding forms seen in Hokusai's manga and [surimono](/glossary/surimono) — with the serpentine dragon as a vehicle of divine power. The composition likely features bold figural work against an active or swirling background, demanding both fine facial carving and energetic line work for the dragon's scales and form. Bull's decade-spanning dedication to reproducing Edo-period prints informs the technical confidence evident in this series.