Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was the great master of Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, endlessly inventive across a seventy-year career. His Great Wave off Kanagawa is perhaps the most recognised image in all of Asian art.
Every year, millions of people glance at a simple red mountain and feel something shift inside them — and most have no idea they are looking at a print made from carved wood blocks in early 19th-century Japan. Fine Wind, Clear Morning (Red Fuji) is that rare image: so stripped back, so bold, so quietly…
Here is a fact that stops most people cold: The Great Wave off Kanagawa is not actually a painting. Millions of people picture it hanging in a gallery like an oil on canvas, yet Hokusai carved it into wood, rolled ink across it, and pressed it onto paper — and he did this so many…