Hokusai

Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai wasn't alive to see the incredible inspiration he brought to the western world.He died in 1849 just before the end of the Edo period in Japan when almost every port was shut off to outsiders. Shogunate  Tokugawa was in charge and did not trust anyone outside Japan.
Because of this isolationism, Hokusai and other Japanese artists, had very little influence from the outside world. Since these Japanese artists could only converse with each other through their art, they became some of the most original artists in  the world. In fact, the rest of the world of printing had moved on to color lithography while Hokusai, Utamaro and Hiroshige (to name a few) were still creating woodcuts. 
At this time, only the Dutch and the Chinese were allowed to trade at the Edo port, the only international port in Japan. Strict rules forbid any outsiders from stepping on Japanese soil. They were to trade their goods from the ship and then depart under the watchful eyes of the Japanese military.
Japan was involved in a terrible civil war when the United States was "invited" to this country by southern Japan in July 1853, only four years after Hokusai's death. The shoguns were overthrown. An emperor was reinstated and Japan's borders were forced open. 
When the western world saw Hokusai's prints from the series of Mt. Fuji for the first time they went crazy...literally! A new word was created called "Japonisme" or the Japan craze. All things japonese were in fashion, especially the master works of the ukiyo-e school.
I wonder what Hokusai would have thought if he had known he was going to be so famous. He was already well known in Japan. It has been said that even though he had a long life, he didn't believe he really achieved the artist status he thrived to obtain. 
The Great Wave, shown above is his most famous work, taken out of a series, "36 Views of Mount Fuji," is a brilliant composition of scale manipulation. Objects on the edge of a painting have more weight than objects in the center which gives the abstracted, claw like wave a strong focal point. We hardly even notice the kayakers in the water that are obviously in trouble. As soon as we compare the size of the boat to the wave, we know they are probably meeting their own fateful death. Mt. Fuji maintains a second focal point in the lower center of the image. Since this is one of the tallest mountains in the world, we really get a measurable scale comparison of this threatening wave. How cleaver was this artist to utilize one of Japan's most iconic symbols in such a subtle way? No wonder this is one of the most recognizable works of art in the eastern world even to this day. It has been written that Hokusai and other ukiyo-e artists inspired the French impressionist movement in the western world. Such originality was brought out of the seclusion these artists were forced to endure in their own country.
This rich part of Japanese history reminds me of the famous science fiction story "Unaccompanied Sonata" by Orson Scott Card, where a musician is deliberately isolated from the rest of the world to see just how original his work could be without any outside influences. Through isolationism Japan unintentionally created some of the most original artists in the world.