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Hokusai was born in 1760 at Edo, a suburb of Tokyo, during the Tokugawa Period, and his father was a mirror maker. The family name was Katsuskika, but the artist took the name Hokusai in 1798. In fact, he changed his name over 30 times during his life. His two best known names are Hokusai and Gakyyo-rojih, the later of which means “old man crazy with painting”. Hokusai studied with Katsukawa Shusho at the age of 19 until his teacher’s death, and he created over 35,000 works during his lifetime. This print was made in the middle part of his career. Hokusai was famous for making prints in the ukiyo-e manner, which means the floating world; he created prints from his impression of reality and not from what he actually saw. He was the first artist to use Prussian blue, which was a permanent ink. Hokusai is most famous for the print entitled The Great Wave. He is the best known Japanese artist in the western world.
Delights from the Eastern Capital, made in 1802, uses the technique of color woodcut. It has two parts, each representing earth, sky and water. The left print is mostly landscapes with hills, valleys, sky, a wall with inscriptions on it, and people picnicking and walking. Clouds also appear on the left side. There is a mixture of full, green-leaved trees and bare thin trees. The right print displays an open landscape above, and the bottom area has rose-colored, thatched roofs, trails with people walking, families, and animals. Since this print was made from a woodblock, the colors do not exactly coincide with the lines. Both prints have borders. The colors used are dark and light green, gold, rose, blue, and grey. The inscriptions were made by Rito Akisato, a famous Japanese author. He has a unique and stylized form of calligraphy. The inscription on the top of the left panel says Asuka-yama, meaning the Asuka Mountain. The inscription on the right print is a poem about this mountain. In Japanese is says tobu tori no Asuka no yama no sakurabana kumo o identewa kumo ni irinan; this translates as “Flying birds over the cherry blossoms of Mt. Asuka go in and out of the clouds.” These prints represent a form of Japanisme, which means art the Japanese created to send to European merchants. Such prints are not typically Japanese, but had primarily a commercial foreign use. It was made in the ukiyo-e style, which employs calligraphy, bold shapes, and flat colors. Another artist associated with this style is Ando Hiroshige, also known as a master of the woodcut.
Courtney Vance
Katsuskika Hokusai Delights from the Eastern Capital Color woodcut Left panel, 8 x 6 in. and right panel, 8 x 6 in. Inscriptions at top of left print, and on the right side of the right print 1802 Acc. No. 1985.04