Katsushika Hokusai

This woodblock print by Taki Shusui takes as its title the name Katsushika Hokusai, the towering figure of Edo-period printmaking whose influence extends across every subsequent generation of Japanese artists. Shusui's print may be a portrait of Hokusai, a reimagining of one of his famous compositions, or an homage that engages with the old master's visual vocabulary. Hokusai lived to the age of eighty-eight and produced an extraordinary volume of work spanning landscapes, ghost stories, manga sketchbooks, and detailed studies of waves and mountains. His restless experimentation made him a natural touchstone for later printmakers seeking to justify their own creative ambitions. Shusui's decision to invoke Hokusai by name rather than by image creates an expectation that the print will speak to the enduring vitality of the woodblock tradition that Hokusai did so much to define.