Hokusai - Women climbing rocks (c. 1870).

Original 19th century woodcut in colour.

By: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1840).

Date: c. 1870.
From: Manga 北斎漫画

Ukiyo-é (“Pictures of the floating world”) is a distinctive art-form in Japanese culture starting from the 17th century up untill the present day. The Prints were made by cutting each colour into a seperate block of wood (from which could be printed). The endresult was achieved by “overlaying” the different colours (so multiple stages of print) on to each other.

Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. Born in Edo, Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji which includes the internationally iconic print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

In 1811, at the age of 51, Hokusai created the Hokusai Manga, which are art handbooks (e-hon). Manga (meaning random drawings) included studies in perspective and movement. The first book of Hokusai's manga was published in 1814 and it was very popular. Therefore, 12 volumes of manga got published before 1820 and three more got published after his death. Throughout his whole life Hokusai made thousands of studies of animals, everyday people and religious figures. They often have humorous overtones and sometimes even seem like caricatures.