Hokusai Great Wave Tea Towel

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was a
Japanese artist, painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He is best known as the author of a woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, which includes the iconic print Great Wave Off Kanagawa. 

He did not begin this series until
much later in his career at the age of 70. It was perhaps the idea of immortality associated with Mount Fuji in Japanese legends and culture that contributed to Hokusai’s obsession with the subject in later
life.  The print series was so popular that he added ten more works after publication. In his most celebrated print, Mount Fuji is small in the distance as an enormous wave curls threateningly over ocean-tossed boats. 

A few years after his death, Hokusai’s
prints began to circulate in Europe in the late 19th century, and would greatly influence artists such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Vincent van Gogh.