Artaya - Japanese art and culture Magazine for teenagers by Vicky Allum

Editor’s Letter Hi! Welcome to the first issue of Artaya, a new online Japanese art and culture magazine for teens, created solely by Vicky Allum. Her interest in Japanese culture stemmed primarily from a love of the animated films by Hayao Miyazaki. Vicky shares some interests with her teenage daughter who is also passionate about Japanese pop culture, together they enjoy spending time together attending anime and comic con conventions. As Vicky is currently completing a Batchelors degree in Applied Media, she decided to bring these interests and her professional skills together to create an interactive publication for her specialist production module. The British Board of Film Classification tells us “that to a large extent, anime is the triumph of form over content though often the non-linear narrative allows complex themes to be explored. To many non-Japanese, cultural barriers prevent any deep understanding of underlying themes and imagery.” In response to this research, Vicky hopes to shine a light on Japanese culture and aims to bring some understanding of the differences between Asian and Western societies. Although this magazine focuses on Japanese culture as a whole rather than solely on just pop culture, hopefully you’ll enjoy learning more about Japan, a country that you may one day get to visit for yourselves! Enjoy reading this first issue of Artaya and please do join the Artaya Facebook page and share any feedback or reviews you have of this first publication. www.facebook.com/artaya.co.uk Have a good day! Artaya

The Matsumoto Fragment In order to celebrate 100 years of the Japanese anime industry, we are going to be pondering over some of the early examples of Japanese anime. What exactly was the first Japanese animation? If you´ve ever searched this subject online you will find that it will reveal that the oldest documented anime is the 1917 Namakura-gatana (The Dull Sword), however Youtube reveals a clip called the Katsudō Shashin that claims to a decade older than Namakura-gatana.

about the consequences, Matsumoto speculated that the film might possibly be up to ´ten years older´ than the Namakura-gatana. Japan´s national newspapers quickly jumped on to this claim in order to assert that there was a distinct possibility that Japan could have even been the creator of the animation medium. The discovery of a mere antique curio had been blown out of all proportion which was not the intention of Matsumoto.

Years later, after the The Katsudō Shashin also controversy had died down, known as the Matsumoto Matsumoto released an fragment, is a three second account about his discovery clip that presents the viewer of the Katsudō Shashin, with a Japanese boy in a which provided some more school sailor outfit, scribbling information about the contents 活動写真 (moving picture) in of the box which contained Kanji letters on a blackboard, the small fragment of film. after he finishes writing he turns Alongside the fragment, he around and takes a bow to the had also found cardboard audience. boxes which held toy magic lantern kits which were from Although well over a century distant Europe and intended old, the small clip was not to for domestic use. Matsumoto be discovered until December said that this made him 2004 by the professor Natsuki contemplate the obsession Matsumoto in the Japanese with ‘defining firsts’, we can city of Kyoto. The small snippet find the first documented of 35mm film consisted of only Japanese cartoon that was fifty frames, which was just intended for public exhibition enough to be woven together and the date and location and run through a projector at which it was first shown, at 16 frames per second to however, this disregards a produce a clip that was just colourful unseen domestic under three seconds in length. culture of magic lantern shows and antique toys such as the This early Japanese animation zoetrope, which were good was to be surrounded by examples of early animation. controversy, without thinking

So, the Matsumoto Fragment may not be the first documented Japanese animation because it probably would never be seen outside the confines of the home, even so, it is important to note it´s significance in relation to Japan cultural past. Magic lantern shows have been recorded as early as the 1670s in China. The early 1800s marked the arrival of these shows in Japan, from the utushi-e (reflected pictures) in Edo (Tokyo) area, to the nishiki kage-e (brocade shadow pictures) in the Osaka region and the kage ninge (shadow puppets) in Shimane. All these examples of magic lantern theatre can be considered as a major precursor to cinema.

theatres, most of them situated in the Tokyo and Osaka regions, however, there still was many travelling performances taking place across Japan´s countryside.

One of the most important figures in Japan’s theatre was the Benshi, who were Japanese film narrators, but they not only commented on the action on the stage but also often performed the roles. The Benshi were often seen as the star of the show, their role was imperative to the cinematic experience. Edison’s cinématographe arrived in Japan in 1897 and the public saw this Western piece of technology as magical and exotic. During the silent age of cinema, the benshi would not In October 1903, Japan had gained it´s only offer running commentary on the projected film but would also explain very first purpose-built movie theatre, to the audience the mechanics behind the Denki-kan which was situated in the city of Asakura in Tokyo. This was an the camera itself. Some narrators even provided insights into Western important event in Japan´s cinematic culture. The Japanese had turned the history because it demonstrates public exhibition of silent cinema into that there was a strong demand a carnival experience for their own from people to visit the theatre. By audiences. 1916, there were over 300 Japanese

By 1899, Japan had turned the camera inwards to film their Kabuki, a traditional Japanese dance-drama. When Kabuki first originated it was acted entirely by females, however during the Edo Period (1603-1868), Tokugawa Leyasu banned women from participating, since then the roles have been performed by men even in the present day. One of the central themes of Kabuki is the inner turmoil surrounding human emotion and morality. Many of the Japanese moral principles are derived from the religious ideals of Buddhism, Shinto and Confucianism. These religious philosophies emphasised the importance of respect and devotion to one’s elders and community. Kabuki would highlight the turmoil of following these expected ideals whilst dealing with one’s own personal emotions. Love or jealousy often gets in the way of a person’s ability to live within their expected moral codes. Often these dramatical performances would end in tragedy.

films to “talkies” which occurred between 1926 and 1930, saw the steady decline of the Benshi, a tradition that had developed over the previous two decades. It did take Japan significantly longer to progress towards sound films than any countries, with the country finally completing their transition by 1939. The introduction of audio meant that most Benchi found themselves surplus to requirements and aimlessly looking for work. So, although we have identified the Matsumoto Fragment may not be the earliest example of Japanese animation, it is a pointer towards the country’s cultural history with its magic lantern shows, shadow puppets and colourful theatre. The Japanese embedded their own traditions throughout their screenings of Western silent films, which worked as a sort of carnival cinema experience that upheld their own national identity.

The function of camera within these classical performances had changed, it no longer assisted in the creation of the stage show but enabled the documentation of Japan’s own traditions. The Benshi were still an influential part of these recordings, with their names appearing outside of the Kabuki theatre and on the stage itself. As the distribution of these recordings increased, many Benshi found themselves co-starring with more experienced renowned and famous Benshi. At this point in history, there were several thousand Benshi operating in Japan. The gradual transition from silent

Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) Hatsune Miku, (“hot-suenay mee-koo”) is Japan’s leading virtual pop star. The cyber celebrity was “born” on the 31st August 2007, her life began as a Vocaloid, a futuristic voice synthesiser software created by Crypton Future Media that was designed to appeal to anime fans. The Japanese artist behind the character of Miku is Kei Garou, his work not only bought to life a world-famous pop star but gave rise to entire industry. The illustrations Kei created for Crypton’s character series bought forth a myriad of Miku Hatsune video games, merchandise and even live virtual reality concert experiences which have expanded from her home country to locations all over the world. Miku even opened Lady Gaga’s ArtRave: The Artpop Ball tour in the United States and has performed on The Late Night Show with David Letterman.

was the colour scheme, he was required to create Miku in Yamaha’s trademark blues and greens. The task took Kei over a month to complete. What is even more interesting is how Miku’s vast fan community have utilised Kei Garou’s image of the virtual pop star. In Introducing Japanese Popular Culture, Freedman and Slade tell us that “Crypton sells the software but takes a more open-source approach to the use of Miku’s image, generally allowing the fans to use the image for free.” Artists and businesses have replicated her image and in doing this have effectively contributed to her emergence as a star.

On the 3rd April 2020 the Piapro website, a platform created by Crypton, ran an art competition in which users are invited to submit their own design ideas for Snow Miku 2021 for their chance to have their own project Kei Garou admits that when featured at the Sapporo he was commissioned to Snow Festival in Hokkaido. create the artwork for Miku, The winners design will also he struggled with the high be turned into Nendoroid level concepts that Crypton and Figma and the image provided him, he wasn’t used for promotional familiar with synthesisers and material at the event. This found it difficult to convey the demonstrates how creative image of a singing computer communities, with their on the page. The only brief shared interests can form a Kei received in relation to foundation on which business the illustration of the android, can be built.

It is evident that Miku’s world is part of the dōjin culture (also sometimes known as doujin). The term means “same person” and is a Japanese word for a group of people with a collective interest. In English terminology we might think of it as a `fandom´, `society´ or `circle. ´Dōjin was first established as literary societies in the Meiji era. Now the term is used to cover amateur self-published works, including video games, manga, art collections, music and anime. Miku’s fan base have contributed to her social and economic success in a similar fashion to the activities of a business. In terms of the Vocaloid 3 version of the Hatsune Miku software, the program allows the user to create vocal parts from scratch by using the keyboard image to select the notes and words can be added for the lyrics. Effects can be used such as vibrato and dynamics can be combined in order to change the tone of her voice. Miku is not the only available character software, there are countless others available on the market. Miku Hatsune’s popularity, however, seems to have soared above that of her counterparts. Wakamura tells us that she “is so popular that she has become the face of the Vocaloid, and the future of the scene depends on her – she’s like the ´Miss Universe Vocaloid.´

is representative of the connection between the people, which, like herself is present but is not something that can be physically touched. Vocaloid producers offer something completely different to the mainstream music industry, they often do use it to sing about serious subjects such as life and death but also cover light-hearted and playful topics such as being a cat or wanting to eat a fish. When we consider Miku in this context she looks less like the virtual pop diva, and instead more like a mirror that shines a light on the creators that are using her software. She is the expression of everyone’s own personal art and music styles. As is stated in Mikumentary, “She is one artist, but she is the image of thousands of artists.” Crypton’s Piapro platform encourages fans to recreate Miku in any way they see fit, which, enhances the connection between the consumer and corporate body. In generating activities for fan communities that respond to the needs of the business, Crypton have exposed how a free culture and grassroots approach can develop social and economic relationships.

Miku’s concerts offer a rare opportunity for her fans to connect with each other in real life rather than on the online forums and social media networks that are usually used to meet people with similar interests. Therefore, these live shows act as more of a social gathering than an actual concert. When the crowd sourced pop singer performs her fan-produced songs on the stage, her audience feel as though she belongs to them, she not only created by them but is one of them. Miku´s virtual existence

The Japanese Haiku The Haiku is a traditional form of Japanese poetry that was perfected by master poet, Matsuo Bashō during the Edo Period (1644- 1694). The haiku form was established in the thirteenth century, as the opening verse of a renga, an oral poem, which is typically 100 stanzas in length, based on a specific syllabic pattern. Renga was created by two or more collaborative writers, who would compose alternating verses, connecting the thoughts and images of the poets in order to represent a theme, emotion or idea. The opening verse of the renga, the hokku, broke away from its longer composition in the seventeenth century to form the independent haiku. The haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables which is still popular in Japan today. The first line has 5 syllables, the second line has 7 syllables and the final third line repeats another five, usually these lines do not rhyme.

Japanese, sometimes called romaji, (ローマ字), literally “Roman letters.” Furuike ya Kawazu tobikomo Mizu no oto. Much of Basho’s poetry is reflective of Zen Buddhism. He never actually became a monk but did study Zen practice for many years. Becoming a monk would have meant that he would have to give up writing poetry and this was something he was just not willing to do. So instead, he travelled across the countryside using his natural surroundings as his altar, placing an image of Buddha that his friend had given him on the grass.

The Old Pond poem above embodies Zen because it describes Satori (悟り), a Japanese Buddhist term for ‘sudden enlightenment’ or an ‘awakening’. The stillness of the pond is not only an appreciation of nature but also serves as a metaphor for the unenlightened mind. The frog breaks the silence with The great Japanese poet, Matsuo the ‘sound of water’ or a ‘splash’ Bashō is accredited with elevating the which embodies a fleeting moment of haiku to a superior art form, creating enlightenment. As Varley comments in approximately 1000 haiku poems Japanese Culture, Basho has “simply throughout his lifetime, during a series juxtaposed the two images without of spiritual journeys across Japan. This is subjective comment and has left it to one of Basho’s classic haikus: the reader to draw whatever meaning or meanings he can from the poem.” 古池や蛙飛び込む水の音 Haiku poetry came to the West in the The old pond late nineteenth century. Its purpose is A frog jumps in to communicate a direct experience. Sound of the water Western writers sometimes get their own interpretation of the haiku wrong, If we want to know what this sounds providing an expression of an idea like, we can use the romanization of surrounding an experience rather than the experience itself.

This might be considered a bad haiku: Spring break of day, Tulips symbolise rebirth, Nature restored! This Haiku is telling the reader that “Tulips symbolise rebirth,” it is just conceptual and does not provide the reader with an experience. Contrast that with something like this: Shivering, leaping, A single new tulip fresh, Into the ashes. A haiku like this, provides two opposing images, “tulips” and “ashes” for the reader to discover their own meaning. The verse also brings us in to the moment. Matsuo Basho provided some insight on the formation of haiku, once saying: “When composing a verse let there not be a hair’s breadth separating your mind from what you write; composition of a poem must be done in an instant, like a woodcutter felling a huge tree or a swordsman leaping at a dangerous enemy.” So, the zen haiku comes from a fleeting moment of insight and embodies the form of emptiness. In writing a haiku, you must look at the image before you and respond to that image. Often there is a difference between what we see and what we think we see. Haiku’s also usually provide a suggestion of the year it is written, and this is done using one word, called a kigo (季語, "season word"). As is evident in Basho’s verse below: 夏草や兵どもが夢の跡

The summer grasses. All that remains Of warriors’ dreams. Another important rule of traditional haiku is the kereji or ‘cutting word’. It divides the poem into two parts, and it is through this break that the true beauty of the haiku can be realised. The cut sets up the juxtaposition and the reader is compelled through the imagination to reassemble the two parts of the poem in order to provide new insights. We might consider it as an ‘oh!’ moment, unfortunately in English haiku it is often left out. 五月雨の降のこしてや光堂 The early summer rain Fall and fall yet Leave untouched Hikari-do Hall. It is the ya や in this poem that emphasises the preceding words and invites the reader to explore their interconnection. English Haiku You might have observed that the Matsuo Bashō haikus above don’t meet the 5-7-5 syllable pattern. This is simply because the syllable pattern works a lot better in Japanese. If you try and compose an English haiku, it will be more effective if you use no more words than you need. If we think about the Japanese Zen eating style known as oryoki, which connotes a sense of consuming “just enough” or the “right amount.” Well this could also be applied to your own poetry, by using just the right amount of words. if you are adding words just to adhere to the syllable rules that would not be considered a good haiku.

At the same time, if you are finding it difficult to stay within the haiku structure, you might be overthinking it, try and let your perception guide you. Hopefully, now you know all about the Japanese haiku you will be able to give it a go yourself!

Hello Kitty and Kawaii Culture The Japanese cute character, Hello Kitty, is perhaps the most well-known kawaii icon and is recognised across the world. She was created by the Sanrio, the Toyko-based character merchandise company that was founded in 1962 by Shintaro Tsuji. The business began by selling flowery rubber sandals but found there was a bigger market in cute merchandise. Shintaro decided to employ a group of cartoonists to create these cute kyarakutas (characters). Hello Kitty was created by Yuko Shimizu and first appeared on a small vinyl coin purse in 1974. In Western society we might assume that kawaii is just another word for ‘cute’ but in fact it is a multi-faceted term with many connotations. The modern-day word originated from the Taisho period (1912-1926), “kawayushi,” which means shy, pathetic, vulnerable, embarrassed, loveable, and small. Kawaii still retains those meanings in Japan today and can be anything that evokes feelings of love, care and protectiveness. Now there are also several kawaii sub-cultures. Contrary to what you might believe and despite her feline appearance Hello Kitty is not a cat. She is in fact a girl called Kitty White, who is of British nationality. During the 1970s at the time of her creation, the Japanese, particularly women, loved the idea of quintessential 14

Kawaii Sub-Cultures: Kimo-kawaii – translates as “gross-

cute” it appeared in the 1990s and bares a similarity with some American trends. In The Rise of Japan’s CreepyCute craze published in The Atlantic we are informed that this “subversion of the traditionally cutesy is part of a cultural backlash to Japan’s adorability binge, and part smart marketing tactic.”

Busu-Kawaii – The term busu

is short for busaiku which literally means ugly. This sub-culture plays more on the feelings of pity that are associated with kawaii.

Shibu-Kawaii – Is a subdued/

everyday cuteness, it doesn’t involve any extremes. It can refer to daily trends.

Guro-Kawaii – This is a similar

subculture to Kimo-Kawaii. Guro stands for “gory” or “grotesque.” A good example of this Gloomy Bear who demonstrates the opposing ideas in this genre. He is cute yet kills and eats people.

Ero-Kawaii – Is a sub-culture that

was influenced by Western notions of sexiness. The name was derived from a shortened version of the English word “Erotic.” The term erotic has negative connotations in Japanese culture.

Hello Kitty Profile: Name: Kitty White Blood Group: A Birthday: November 1st Weight: same as three apples Height: tall as five apples Hobbies: Baking cookies and playing piano Ambitions: Dreams of becoming a pianist or a poet. Favourite Food: Mama’s apple pie.

England which they felt was representative of an idealised childhood. Sanrio has provided an entire biography of Kitty White on their website which provides information about her profile, her family and her friends. Although all this biographical information doesn’t particularly contribute towards her success, it does as Yano describes in the essay, Hello Kitty Is Not a Cat!?!, “act as a narrative force, providing details that make Hello Kitty (and her family and friends) not simply a plush logo but a being with agency.” In other words, it is by way of this fictionalised biography that this kyarakuta takes on a life of her own, a character which adults and children alike can form relationships with. Kitty’s personal narrative also cements her position as a global figure, she is a British girl, living in middle-class white family and her surname “White” reiterates her ethnicity. Her parents

and grandparents’ names, George, Mary, Anthony and Margaret echo those of British royalty. Kitty’s American boyfriend and companion, Daniel Starr, is a cultured individual who has travelled around the world with his photographer father yet returned to be with Kitty. Visiting the Sanrio website, we learn that the company’s marketing strategy centres around human relationships through what they call “social communication.” Shintaro Tsuji CEO and president of Sanrio encourages gift exchange “as a means of expressing our heartfelt feeling for others.” In Japan there are many important and long-held gift giving traditions that are deeply rooted in the country’s history, however there are a lot of rules and obligations that surround the cu stom of gift-giving so the “heartfelt feelings” that Sanrio promote are sometimes not a part of these rituals. Buying a Hello Kitty kawaii product for

for a friend is therefore not just an individual act but also a national need.

helplessness, only reiterating the need for this character to be protected and cared for. It is this vulnerability that draws people to her. Yano tells Sanrio’s tagline, “Small Gift, Big Smile” us that “guardianship by way of indicates that exchange is possible a kyarakuta runs parallel with infant by providing their customers with a mothering, which are characterised wide variety of gifts for different tastes not so much by verbal interaction and budgets, offering a range of (e.g. like in America) but rather products from diamond encrusted more by a physical interaction.” To jewellery to packs of stickers. In fact, make sense of this, think about your a smaller priced gift often parallels favourite teddy bear or blanket, with the spirit of kawaii and is often that you or a younger sibling would described as kawaii nedan (cute price) carry around everywhere as a form or nedan mo kawaii (even the price is of comfort. This is exactly what the cute). By placing itself outside of the Hello Kitty kyarakuta does, she provides rigid structure of social obligation and comfort, nurture and support simply marketing gifting as an emotional by being there. Yet her vulnerability act, Sanrio builds bonds and also requires the consumer to provide promotes social communication. protection and care for her in this mutually dependant relationship. The spokespeople for Sanrio explain that “Hello Kitty doesn’t have any Today, Hello Kitty is the second mouth so people can project their highest grossing media franchise feelings on to her,” this cements the of all time, having generated friendship between the child and 80.026 billion dollars throughout her the kyarakuta. She becomes a mirror lifetime. In the 1990s, she was reblankly reflecting the emotions of marketed with merchandise that whoever she is with. Children are not gave her a cool retro feel, parents the only consumers of Hello Kitty; it who had owned her products in is now 45 years since her character the 70s and 80s could buy more was created so her existence of her goods for their own children spans across many generations of which recycled her appeal across consumers. Her continued success a number of generations. Her depends on this nostalgic appeal, kyarakuta has become an emblem luring back the consumers of her for a time when life was more past to their own childhood and relaxed and less complicated. reminding us of an idyllic faux Hello Kitty’s commodified “social England past where mothers baked communication” via the aesthetic of apple pies and in Sanrio’s words kawaii has global appeal which only “ever-reliable” fathers smoked a pipe adds to her successes. and told jokes. Hello Kitty’s, mouthless face not only allows for shared emotion but also displays her vulnerability and 16

The Happiness Garden Bento Box Recipe Hatching Chick

Mushrooms

• • •

1 hard-boiled egg Piece of carrot/salami Sushi Nori

1. Slowly zigzag around the egg with tip of knife, slightly lifting the top as you go to make sure you are not cutting into the yolk. 2. Carefully remove the top of the egg. Use a hole punch to make two eyes out of the nori. 3. Cut a triangle beak out of carrot, or salami if you prefer. 4. Put the eyes and beak on to the yolk with tweezers. Use a dab of water to help them stick.

Chicken • rice • • •

½ cup of cooked sushi or risotto 2 pieces of sweetcorn Sushi nori Sausage or salami

1. Put a sprinkle of salt into ½ cup of warm cooked rice. 2. Mix the salt into the rice and toss it to cool. 3. Put the rice in some cling film to shape it into an oval with your hands. 4. Carefully unwrap and use craft punches to make eyes. 5. Cut sausage or salami pieces for the chicken’s cheeks and comb. 6. Use two pieces of sweetcorn for the beak.

1 slice of cheese 1 slice of salami 1 piece of sushi nori

1. Use a mushroom cookie cutter to cut the two mushrooms. 2. Cut off the stems of the salami and using a straw punch three holes into each one. Put the salami caps on to the cheese mushrooms. 3. Cut the faces out using a nori punch cutter and place on to the cheese.

Flowers • •

3 cherry tomatoes. 1 celery stick

1. Carefully zigzag around the cherry tomato with the tip of the knife then delicately pull the two halves apart to create the flower heads to make the flower heads. Make a small hole in the bottom to put the celery stalks in. 2. Chop a celery stick into smaller thinner stems then push them through the bottom of your tomato flower heads.

People •

Cucumber

1. To create the people cut a piece of cucumber lengthways. You could also use cheese slices or luncheon meat if you prefer. 2. Use a small gingerbread man cutter to cut out the shape.

Now its time to decorate your garden, cover the bottom of your bento box with a bed of lettuce, add a few mini peppers for an extra bit of colour! 19

Hokusai and his Great Wave Off Kanagawa. Although you may not be familiar with name Hokusai, it is highly likely that you have come across one of his iconic Japanese woodblock prints such as his Under the Wave off Kanagawa (1831-34), also known as The Great Wave or his Red Fuji (1830-32). It is unfortunate that even though these prints are highly popular, Hoskusai, the artist himself, is largely unknown within the United Kingdom. Hokusai was born in Edo (now Tokyo) in October 1970. It is believed he was adopted as a child by an artisan family of mirror makers and his father was Nakajima Ise, who created and painted these mirrors for the shogun, the commander-in-chief of feudal Japan. He lived within an artisan community of craftspeople, which had narrow streets and wooden houses. Under the influence of his father he began to paint at a young age. Hokusai also worked as a book lender for the library. He would deliver these books from door to door for a small fee and in his spare time would replicate the illustrations within them, which allowed him to refine his acute attention to detail and was also the infrastructure on which he could build an encyclopaedic knowledge of different drawing and painting techniques. When Hokusai became a teenager, he decided he would follow his own career path and leave the family mirror making behind. At fourteen years he entered an apprenticeship 20

as a wood block carver, and he remained there till he was eighteen. Before the end of his teenage years, he was accepted into the studio of a leading printmaker and painter, Katsukawa Shunsho. Katsukawa was a master of the ukiyo-e style. Ukiyo-e (浮世絵) literally translates as “floating world.” Before the word ukiyo acquired artistic meaning, it was a religious word with Buddhist connotations of the sad, floating, grief-stricken world. The ‘e’ at the end of Ukiyo-e, literally means a picture, that is possibly religious, of the transitory world, a world of birth, death, suffering and re-birth. During the early Edo period, ukiyo-e was adopted by an art tradition, undergoing many transformations, leaving the Buddhist perceptions of grief and sadness behind and in contrast became representative of the floating world of life’s pleasures. These “pictures of the floating world” would illustrate scenes of everyday life such as romantic landscapes, beautiful women, famous theatre actors, city life and erotic scenes. It was during this time that the people of Japan were enjoying relative peace, economic growth and political stability under the shogunate (military dictatorship). The woodblock prints of “the floating world” were the artistic expression of this newly found wealth and depicted the hedonistic lifestyles of prosperous merchants.

During Hokusai’s time at the studio of Katsukawa Shunsho he concentrated mainly on creating ukiyo-e that focused on images of courtesans and Kabuki actors that were famous at the time. Upon the death of Shunsho in 1973, Hokusai moved away from these traditional ukiyo-e artworks and concentrated on landscapes and the depiction of the everyday lives of the Japanese people from a variety of social classes. During the Shogun period, Japan had closed themselves off to the rest of the world, any contact with Western culture was prohibited. Despite this Hokusai did manage to access some European copper plate engravings that had been smuggled into the country, which inspired him to revolutionise the ukiyo-e art style. Over the next 50 years, Hokusai would make a good living as an artist. The constant re-invention of his style and his art demonstrated his versatility. Throughout his lifetime he used more than thirty different artist names. He created many different works ranging from anything to flower paintings to highly popular commercial books of erotic art. Hokusai also published sketch books called Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawings, that were available in three parts. He did not consider himself to be a great artist, just a “mere” commercial one, it is perhaps this humility that blessed him with the common touch, one that inspired him to share his drawing techniques with the wider community.

and he felt tired and decided that he was done, his work was over. Hokusai, however, did not have the time to rest on his laurels, an unfortunate sequence of events unfolded that forced him out of this retirement. His wife passed away and his grandson racked up gambling debts that the artist was forced to pay. These struggles were evident in a letter he wrote to his publishers, which read, “no money, no clothing, barely enough to eat; if I can’t make some arrangement by the middle of next month, I won’t make it to another spring.” Hokusai was left so povertystricken that him and his daughter had to go and find a lodging in a temple. Fortunately, the artist was saved by the import of blue pigment called “Prussian Blue” which had been manufactured in Berlin and trafficked into Japan by the Chinese. Hokusai was one of the first Japanese printmakers to boldly embrace this new colour within his works. In 1831, Hokusai’s publishers, announced the title for his new prints: 36 Views of Mount Fuji by Hokusai, decorated with Prussian Blue. The series of prints showcases Mount Fuji from a variety of geographical perspectives in all seasons and weathers.

Hokusai and his publisher had a specific market in mind when creating these new prints, Japan had seen a rapid growth in tourism in the few decades of the nineteenth century, with beauty spots all over the country attracting many visitors At seventy years of age, Hokusai had from the cities. Religious devotees a tremendous volume of work behind went trekking up Mount Fuji on him, his age was creeping up on him spiritual pilgrimages. On one hand

Studying all thirty-six of these prints it is evident there is an obvious difference between the benign and pastoral landscapes and his most famous and most recognisable work, The Wave off Under Kanagawa. We might question why there is an image within this series of a phenomenal wave which threatens to engulf not only the boatmen below it but also Fuji itself. This terrific wave might be representative of Hokusaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Buddhist It is evident from these prints that beliefs, with the oarsmen not so much Hokusai had a great interest in battling the wave but instead going human activity, with every painting besides the Red Fuji, featuring along with the flow of life. According common townspeople going about to the eigth century Chinese master, their everyday lives. This is one aspect Yung-Chia illustrates this by explaining that â&#x20AC;&#x153;a human life force will produce that set the artist apart from his contemporaries, an emphasis on the the next life just as the energy of one working world of the ordinary people. wave produces the next wave. the people were terrified that the Fuji would have a volcanic eruption but at the same time they were very grateful for the supply of water that it provided for them. The artists prints were appealing to both the ordinary people and religious buyers alike, they were like a picture postcard, emulating the spiritual, beautiful and divine views of the volcano.

This energy will never disappear, resulting in a continuous formation of successive lives.” So, there is this idea that the individual can be assimilated with the wave on the sea, having only a transitory, fleeting life and the wave energy “never disappearing” being representative of reincarnation. Furthermore, when Hokusai produced this he might have been thinking about his own mortality, he was nearing the end of his own life so the image of the wave might have connotations of his own lifelong obsession with life and death. It may also have been feasible that the artist might have been indicating that the pleasures of the floating world could only last for so long, life is not fixed, an earthquake or a volcanic eruption could easily put an end to these overindulgences, or perhaps if we think of the plight of Hokusai, even a thieving grandson. The image of The Great Wave has been compared to recent photographic evidence of a large pyramidal wave that is just at the point of breaking and this shot was taken off the coast of Japan. There is a possibility then that Hosukai’s image potentially records a real representation of a large wave event, in the BBC 4 documentary, Private Life of a Masterpiece, we are told that “a place it might have occurred is Tokyo Bay. Even today, many ships founder in this bay.” The boats that are featured in the print are oshiokuri-bune, fast vessels that would be used for the transportation of fish to the Tokyo markets. The snow line on Mount Fuji indicates that this print is set in

the springtime and this season is linked to the bonito, which is an oily fish which resembles a tuna. These transportation boats would have been in a hurry to get these fish to the market because the first bonito of the year were a delicacy and rich traders would pay half the year’s salary of a commoner for these fresh stocks. Four years after The Great Wave off Kanagawa was published, a major earthquake occurred at Mount Fuji, which resulted in avalanches which caused huge loss of life. Hokusai’s print was adapted for use in a broadsheet newspaper that was reporting on this natural disaster. It is not known how he felt about this, however, he continued to design a number of wave prints after this which reveals that he did not consider that he had created the definitive image in The Great Wave. In a poignant autobiography, he shared his thoughts:

“From the age of 6, I had a

penchant for drawing things, and from about age 50, my pictures were frequently published; but until the age of 70, nothing that I drew was worthy of notice. At 73 years I was able to fathom the growth of plants and trees; and the structure of birds, animals, insects and fish. Thus when I reached 80 years, I hope to have made increasing progress, and at 90 to see further into the underlying principle of things, so that at 100 years I will have achieved a divine state of my art, and at 110, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive.” 23

At the end of this memoir he scribbles his signature, “76 year old. The former Hokusai, changing to Litsu. Old man crazy with painting.” At Eighty years of age, this “old man crazy with painting” would create his last wave representations on the ceiling of a festival float, accepting an invitation to paint these waves, he walked the whole 21 kilometres to Obuse to create his depiction of masculine and feminine waves for the festival cart panel. These paintings symbolised the opposite, yet complementary forces at work within the universe. This festival float was awe inspiring for the local people, with many having never seen the sea before. Hokusai got to see whether his autobiographical predictions would come true, although he remained creative until his death at 88 in May 1949. On his deathbed, he is quoted as apparently saying:

“If only Heaven will grant me

just another 10 more years, or even five more, I could become a true artist.”

Regardless of Hokusai’s humility, his work was deserving enough to influence great Western artists such as Monet and Van Gogh. The impressionist French composer, Claude Debussy worked with one of Hokusai’s prints in his study and paid homage to it in 1905 when he composed La Mer. The Great Wave is now an omnipresent image, with the wave featuring on clothing, merchandise and even inspiring tattoos. As probably, the most iconic Japanese image in the world, I believe, without doubt that Hokusai did achieve the “divine state” of his art that he so wished for.

Painted ceiling panels of wave subjects, done in 1845 for a festival cart loaned by Hokusaikan, Obuse, for the British Museum Hokusai exhibition from 25th May to 13th August 2017.