Hokusai was born in 1760, and it is believed that he was adopted into a family which specialized in making mirrors for the Tokugawa Shogunate. He lived most of his life in the Edo, or present day Tokyo, business district along the Sumida River.

Hokusai was unusual among ukiyo-e artists because he changed his name nearly a hundred times in the seventy years until his death in 1849. We know him today as "Hokusai" because this name appeared on and off, in various combinations, during a long period from about 1796 to 1833.

He worked under many different schools throughout his younger years. In his teens, he studied woodblock engraving under the printer Honjo Yokozunacho. By the age of 18, he entered katsukawa Shunsho's studio as an apprentice, where he painted portraits of Kabuki actors.

Throughout his life, Hokusaid was ssearching for a style of his own, for as he tired of one kind of expression he sought a new and fresh one.

The Great Wave Off Kanagawa is from his series of prints Fugaku Sanju-rokkei (Thirty-Six Views of Mt. Fuji), which was completed in 1831. Hokusai experimented with many styles of art, including Western perspective from copper engravings that were smuggled into Japan. In the end he decided to stay with a more traditional Japanese presentation of using 3 decorative elements - the wave, Mt. Fuji, and boats. The use of color was simplified too, limiting the color palate to blue, gray and brown. The white areas are unprinted, where the color of the paper shows through. This is perhaps the most iconic image in Japanese art.

Poster is 18 x 24 in.