Hokusai

SEINEN PRODUCTIONS

HOKUSAI

THE SEINEN COOPERATIVE KOZO IGAWA NAOKICHI SHIGA

KATUYOSHI NAWA YUKIO NAWA

Supervising Producers: NAKAKAGE OKABE SEIICHIRO TAKAHASHI

Producer: KOZO IGAWA Scriptwriter: MAKOTO YOSHIKAWA

Cinematographers: SUSUMU URASHIMA, HIROMI HASEGAWA JUNICHI SEGAWA

Director: HIROSHI TESHIGAHARA

Archive Materials: TOKYO NATIONAL MUSEUM

THE YEAR 1760

About 190 years ago, Hokusai Katsushika was born in Edo's Katsushika district.

The shogunate in Edo was beginning to crumble.

To prop itself up, the shogunate plundered the peasantry,

who began leaving the countryside for Edo and challenging samurai rule.

Edo's population at the time was 800,000.

HIROSHIGE

FLOWER OF EDO

Well now, well now... what do you think?

When it's the whores who know me

who give me shelter from the elements.

It was like the sky was raining pipes.

No matter how rich you are, or what a big shot you are,

that's not something money can buy.

Hey, samurai, if you make trouble,

I'll kick a boat up your nose.

What's going on here?

"Eating, shitting and fornicating - such is the world,

from the emperor to the common man."

The merchant class used their money and power

to challenge the samurai.

Their free thinking, unlike the bigotry of the idle samurai, earned the peasants trust.

"Nothing is as loud as the mosquitoes.

"They hum 'bunbu' (arms and letters), keeping me up all night."

The samurai, up to the shogun, indulged in worldly pleasures.

These were paid for by oppressing the peasantry with heavy taxes.

The economic domination of the robust merchant class,

had cultural effects as well, namely the flowering of "merchant art".

Ukiyo-e prints, departed from the conventions of aristocratic art.

The richly colored nishiki-e prints first appeared

in the form of courtesan portraits made popular by Harunobu Suzuki.

Hokusai was six years old at the time. KIYONAGA

At 14, Hokusai was apprenticed to a printmaker.

At 19, wishing to learn painting,

he began to study with Shunsho Katsukawa.

While Buncho, Kiyonaga, Toyoharu, and Utamaro

never tired of drawing the licensed quarters,

Hokusai sought out the teachings of all the painting schools.

such as the Kano, Tosa, Maruyama, and Korin schools.

He even studied Chinese painting.

All this time, he suffered agonizing poverty.

"The 23rd: rain - painted all day."

"This day last year, rice shortages caused widespread chaos." Kokan Shiba

At around this time, Hokusai met Kokan.

The subjects he learned directly from Kokan

were geometry, anatomy,

oil painting, and copperplate printing.

The scientific spirit of Kokan, who had studied Western arts and sciences,

deeply fascinated Hokusai.

Indeed, Kokan was Hokusai's greatest teacher.

It was he who showed him the way forward.

HOKUSAI

Thus Hokusai's unique style was born.

"Not flying high, though endowed with wings,

not bearing fruit though blooming."