Inspired by: Katsushika Hokusai - Fishing in the surf at Kajikazawa
An Anglicized title for this print is “Fishing in the surf at Kajikazawa”. It was the first in the series, “Thirty Six Views of Mt Fuji”, the most famous of which was “The Great Wave of Kanagawa”. He started this series when he was 73, at the height of his career. He worked until he was 89 and felt he got better as he got older. Just before he died he wrote, “If only the heavens could grant me another five years I would become a great artist”.
The first impression of this print was all blue, but the number of colors was increased in later additions. Around 1790 the Dutch traders brought Prussian Blue pigments to Japan. At first this was very expensive, but by 1820 the price came down and the ukiyo-e began using it in their prints. Hokusai was one of the early adopters and the original version of many of his prints were all blue, including The Great Wave. The Japanese called the new color Beru-ia, which comes from their word for Berlin, the city where the pigment was manufactured.
Like many of the Japanese artists of the era, Hokusai changed his name several times during his career. These changes often marked different stages of life, or it could have just been a way of refreshing the brand. By the time he got to the Mt Fuji series he was using the name Gakyo rojin (Old man crazy to paint). To see original: https://bit.ly/4fAztDn https://bit.ly/4fAztDn