Late Hokusai: Thought, technique, society

Based on Hokusai’s major brush paintings, drawings, woodblock prints and illustrated books from his later years (1819−1849), this project explored how the artist combined the eclectic influence of Japanese, Chinese and European techniques with an encyclopaedic knowledge of nature, myth and history. Through cutting-edge scientific exploration of his technique, the project established criteria to help determine and authenticate his art. It also explored the influence of his wider collaborative network on the arts and culture of his period and urban surroundings. 

The project focused on four research areas: 

• How Hokusai’s art expressed his belief that art had the power to transcend beyond the limitations of the self 
• The impact of Hokusai’s work in redefining artistic techniques and definitions in Japan, China and Europe 
• Establishing identification criteria to help authenticate Hokusai’s painted and printed works 
• The role of Hokusai’s social networks – including collaborators and craftsmen, printers and publishers, pupils, patrons and the public – in the creation, reception and distribution of his later art.

This project was designed to carry out original, interdisciplinary research on Hokusai’s later work covering the last thirty years of his life (1819−1849) to deliver a major public exhibition – Hokusai: beyond the Great Wave – which was held at the British Museum and in Osaka, Japan, in 2017. 

Using a pioneering OpenAccess digital tool called ResearchSpace, it also developed an exhibition online, showing the 103 ‘lost’ drawings rediscovered as part of this project. This was established to catalyse engagement and collaboration between international scholars, students, collectors and art industry professionals as well as members of the public with an interest in Japanese art.

The overarching aim of this project was to redefine understanding of late Hokusai through the synthesis and mastery of his encyclopaedic range of styles, forms and formats. Together, these produced an extraordinary series of images, from worlds both witnessed and imagined, which hold the key to his universal and lasting appeal.

This project has opened up new avenues of study showing Hokusai as an artist caught up in the immediate concerns and geography of his era as well as reaching beyond his own environment. As a result, he created work that intersects real and imagined worlds which has implications for students of all levels as well as collectors and industry experts. For example, the rediscovery and interpretation of Hokusai’s drawings for The Great Picture Book of Everything exhibition and book reveal a version of 19th-century Japan much more intrigued by the wider world than previously thought – a major new development in Late Hokusai studies.

Looking at Hokusai’s later work through three lenses – Intellectual, Technical and Social – has helped to explain how the artist selected and gained access to his subjects. The project also offers critical reflection and contextualisation of the role the images play in Hokusai’s life and the historical moment in which they were produced. 

Two exhibitions, digital resources, books, blogs and a film are transforming the public understanding and appreciation of Hokusai as an artist and the work he produced.


 

• Ryoko Matsuba, Research Assistant, SOAS 
• Roger Keyes (deceased), Consultant
• Koto Sadamura, Researcher, British Museum
• Asano Shugo, Project Advisor and Exhibition Co-Curator, Abeno Harukas Art Museum, Osaka
• Yasuhara Akio, Independent Scholar

Thanks are due to the many scholars and institutions around the world that have contributed to this project, including: 

• The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
• Abeno Harukas Art Museum, Osaka
• Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto 
• Sumida Hokusai Museum, Tokyo
• Hokusaikan Museum, Obuse
• Tokyo National Museum
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Metropolitan Museum, New York
• Freer-Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

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