Hokusai 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō 1802: Hardcover

Hokusai's 53 Stations of the Tkaid 1802 is something completely different from his first square edition 1801. Hokusai employs the horizontal "landscape" format and abt the double size of his square 1801 edition. In this series Hokusai focus on wonderful folkloric scenes of ordinary people going about their work, in addition to the travel scenes. Hokusai also begins to develop the landscapes that were to become a standard for later generations of Tkaid series. Hokusai develops the concept of the Tkaid print from cartoon to folklore and the beginning of landscape. It was a great and early contribution to the growing Tkaid literature, which Hokusai dominated for some 30 years. Katsushika Hokusai (c. October 31, 1760 - May 10, 1849) was a Japanese artist, painter and printmaker in Edo (Tokyo) period 1760-1849. Hokusai established landscape as a new print genre in Japan. At a young age, Hokusai was adopted by an uncle who held the prestigious position of mirror polisher in the household of the shogun, the commander-in-chief of feudal Japan. It was assumed that the young Hokusai would succeed him in the family business, and he likely received an excellent education in preparation for a job that would place him in direct contact with the upper class. In 19th-century Japan, learning to write also meant learning to draw, since the skills and materials required for either activity were almost identical. When Hokusai's formal education began at age six, he displayed an early artistic talent that would lead him down a new path. He began to separate himself from his uncle's trade in his early teens-perhaps because of a personal argument, or perhaps because he believed polishable metal mirrors would soon be replaced by the silvered glass mirrors being imported by the Dutch-and worked first as a clerk at a lending library and then later as a woodblock carver. At age 19, Hokusai joined the studio of ukiyo-e artist Katsukawa Shunsh and embarked on what would become a seven-decade-long career in art.