0:00:16 > 0:00:20There's something outstandingly dedicated about Hokusai.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26He doesn't shy away from things that are dangerous or that are challenging
0:00:26 > 0:00:28or that are controversial.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31And I think that's part of his heroism.
0:00:48 > 0:00:50Hokusai is the person who invented modern art.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54He is the person who taught us that you don't need to stick within
0:00:54 > 0:00:56the tradition in which you were brought up.
0:00:56 > 0:01:01You don't need to follow the master. You can cut and paste and bring things together.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04CLUCKING
0:01:04 > 0:01:10I must have first seen Hokusai prints when I was at the art school
0:01:10 > 0:01:12in Bradford.
0:01:12 > 0:01:19Their depiction of space, his way of looking at the world,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22appealed to me straightaway.
0:01:23 > 0:01:30Hokusai saw that, on a flat surface, everything is an abstraction,
0:01:30 > 0:01:35everything. I mean, I was inspired by Hokusai there.
0:01:36 > 0:01:40From the time when I was six until I was over 80...
0:01:41 > 0:01:44..not a day went by when I didn't take up my brush.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48And yet I still can't even paint a single cat.
0:01:49 > 0:01:50It won't come out as I wish.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14Hokusai's born in Edo, which is what we now know as Tokyo,
0:02:14 > 0:02:15in the middle of the 18th century.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20It's the biggest city in the world, so it's a thoroughly commercial,
0:02:20 > 0:02:22thoroughly sophisticated place.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24A consumer society, if you like.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37He's born into the working-class districts of Edo,
0:02:37 > 0:02:39and he's adopted into an artisan family.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50Hokusai was born and lived for most of his life on the east bank of
0:02:50 > 0:02:55the Sumida River. And the Sumida River is a locus of transport,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58but also the river was turned over, particularly in the summer,
0:02:58 > 0:03:02to fireworks and big barges with banquets and partying.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06So I think Japanese people would have associated the Sumida River with pleasure.
0:03:21 > 0:03:24Very young, he starts to get interested in drawing -
0:03:24 > 0:03:27by his account, from the age of six, he was drawing things all the time.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30And he's born in the right place at the right time -
0:03:30 > 0:03:33a society with a huge hunger for
0:03:33 > 0:03:36sophisticated renditions of the world around them.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40And there's a huge demand for prints of the celebrities of the day.
0:03:50 > 0:03:51In the city of Edo,
0:03:51 > 0:03:54the Kabuki theatres and brothel district
0:03:54 > 0:03:56on the northern outskirts of the city
0:03:56 > 0:03:58were the subjects for the Floating World school -
0:03:58 > 0:03:59this huge popular school of art.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07It's a kind of joie de vivre, a mind-set,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10which really got going in the middle of the 17th century.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12So, by the time Hokusai's born in 1760,
0:04:12 > 0:04:14it's already more than 100 years old.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20The Floating World really
0:04:20 > 0:04:24illustrates the world of downtown Edo.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31I mean, in the way that, when we look at a Vermeer painting,
0:04:31 > 0:04:33we disappear into a Dutch world
0:04:33 > 0:04:35and we understand it through the painting.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38I think that's what we can do through these prints.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40For a minute, we can disappear into that world
0:04:40 > 0:04:42and understand a little bit about it.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51The process by which these prints were produced was a publisher -
0:04:51 > 0:04:53that was the person with the money,
0:04:53 > 0:04:55who knew which courtesan was really popular,
0:04:55 > 0:04:57which actor was really popular.
0:04:57 > 0:05:02And so the publisher would go to the artist and commission an image.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05And it would then be taken to the carvers, who carved the blocks.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08And when the blocks were finished, they were taken to the printer's.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13As a teenager, Hokusai apprentices to a woodblock cutter.
0:05:13 > 0:05:16So the first thing he does as an artist is learn how to cut the blocks.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18It's a very complex process.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23The original drawing, which is on very thin paper,
0:05:23 > 0:05:26is reversed and actually glued down onto the blocks.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39And the carver then carves to reproduce that brushed line in wood.
0:05:43 > 0:05:46And that is the phenomenal skill of those carvers.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56One of the greatest challenges,
0:05:56 > 0:05:59when you're trying to carve a brushed line in wood,
0:05:59 > 0:06:02is how you imitate that part of the line
0:06:02 > 0:06:03where the ink is starting
0:06:03 > 0:06:08to run out, which is highly valued aesthetically in calligraphy.
0:06:08 > 0:06:12And these carvers are able to imitate that in wood.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18And very often, they carve in the same direction
0:06:18 > 0:06:19that the line was actually brushed.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26Then Hokusai entered the studio of an artist called Katsukawa Shunsho,
0:06:26 > 0:06:29who was right at the epicentre of the Floating World school
0:06:29 > 0:06:30of popular art.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32And Shunsho, his teacher,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35was doing thousands of colour wood block prints of the Kabuki actors,
0:06:35 > 0:06:38who were the superstars of popular culture of the day.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41So Hokusai's earliest published prints are very much
0:06:41 > 0:06:43in the style of his teacher.
0:07:19 > 0:07:20JANGLING
0:07:34 > 0:07:36We do have a very early print, from 1779,
0:07:36 > 0:07:38of a very famous actor, Segawa Kikunojo,
0:07:38 > 0:07:41the third generation in this particular acting lineage.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46The really interesting thing is that you have an actor in front of
0:07:46 > 0:07:48a partition and then, on the right of the actor,
0:07:48 > 0:07:50we have a screen with waves.
0:07:50 > 0:07:53And of course, water will become, throughout Hokusai's career,
0:07:53 > 0:07:54a preoccupation for him.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58He never abandons water or waves as a theme.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01So even in the first work that we have, we see some of what's to come.
0:08:03 > 0:08:06When he was very young, he was very talented.
0:08:06 > 0:08:11I mean, prodigies are a bit rare in visual art.
0:08:11 > 0:08:13They're common in music, aren't they?
0:08:13 > 0:08:18But I mean, he was a little prodigy, like Picasso or something.
0:08:22 > 0:08:25While Hokusai was struggling to make ends meet,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28a man came and asked him to paint a picture for the Boys' Day.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33Hokusai immediately prepared red pigment and drew a picture of Shoki,
0:08:33 > 0:08:34the Demon Queller.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37The customer very satisfied with the picture
0:08:37 > 0:08:40and paid the artist two gold Ryo.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43This was the payment that ultimately made Hokusai confident that he could
0:08:43 > 0:08:45earn his living as an artist
0:08:45 > 0:08:48and vowed to the bodhisattva Myoken that he would succeed.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54Hokusai's family belongs to a particular sect of Buddhism.
0:08:54 > 0:08:55But in fact, for Hokusai,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59the divinity who becomes enormously important is Myoken.
0:08:59 > 0:09:03Myoken is a Buddhist deity, if you like, a bodhisattva,
0:09:03 > 0:09:05associated particularly with the North Star.
0:09:06 > 0:09:07And at a certain point in his life,
0:09:07 > 0:09:11he renames himself by the name we know today - Hokusai.
0:09:11 > 0:09:12It means North Star.
0:09:12 > 0:09:14North Star Studio, actually.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18It's the one point in the heavens that doesn't move,
0:09:18 > 0:09:20whereas the whole of the rest of the heavens move around it.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22So, for Hokusai, it's a fixed point,
0:09:22 > 0:09:27which is a potential source of huge spiritual strength.
0:09:28 > 0:09:30We do know that, for Hokusai,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33Myoken is associated particularly with the Kosho-ji Temple,
0:09:33 > 0:09:34which still exists today.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37It still has a hall within it dedicated to Myoken.
0:09:37 > 0:09:39And Hokusai himself produces an image of this
0:09:39 > 0:09:41quite early in his career.
0:11:05 > 0:11:10He becomes acquainted with some very sophisticated cultural networks of
0:11:10 > 0:11:12men of wealth, men of taste.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16And in Edo at this time, you have these huge clubs of popular poets.
0:11:16 > 0:11:21They come together and they have these outrageous poetry parties,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24where they compose what are called crazy verses.
0:11:24 > 0:11:29And it's Hokusai who's one of the artists of choice who they then hire
0:11:29 > 0:11:32to do little beautiful designs to accompany their poems.
0:11:37 > 0:11:42The first singing of the warbler is more impressive than listening to
0:11:42 > 0:11:46your parents' objections to getting up early on a spring morning.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57Moving into the early 19th century,
0:11:57 > 0:12:00there's a new genre of popular illustrated literature
0:12:00 > 0:12:02that is really big.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06And Hokusai is working with the leading author of these adventure stories,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09an author called Takizawa Bakin, providing the illustrations.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12And these illustrated printed books are phenomenally popular.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22Tametomo let loose a whistling arrow aimed at a ten-foot rock
0:13:22 > 0:13:24shaped like a cactus.
0:13:26 > 0:13:28The rock split right down the middle,
0:13:28 > 0:13:30sending bits flying in all directions.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36A big chunk fell into the sea
0:13:36 > 0:13:40and spray shot up like the blow of a whale in the shallows.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Waves struck back against the land and the ground shook.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06Oh, my God, I can't really believe you had to walk that far just to get
0:14:06 > 0:14:08to the end of all these volumes!
0:14:08 > 0:14:10Look at how many there are!
0:14:10 > 0:14:12To think that I did it all...
0:14:13 > 0:14:15- VOICEOVER:- In the early 1980s,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19I started a catalogue raisonne of Hokusai's prints.
0:14:19 > 0:14:25And by the end of the 1980s compiled about 15,000 photographs.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29And, in fact, doubled Hokusai's known work.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32But that was just the tip of the iceberg with Hokusai.
0:14:32 > 0:14:34By God, the guy's a genius, you know?
0:14:34 > 0:14:36He's really amazing.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46When Hokusai was 45, he came to the notice of the shoguns,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49the military governor of Japan.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54So the shogun put out the word that he'd like to have this artist do him a demonstration.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02But the leading painter of the day, Tani Buncho, was also invited.
0:15:02 > 0:15:04And Tani Buncho painted
0:15:04 > 0:15:06these breathtaking landscapes and mountains
0:15:06 > 0:15:09and things like that. And then it was Hokusai's turn.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14And he got this sheet of paper and he spread it out
0:15:14 > 0:15:17and he had a whole pot, which was just blue ink,
0:15:17 > 0:15:22so he brushed this onto the length of this long sheet of paper.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27And people were just sitting there.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29The shogun was sitting there, thinking,
0:15:29 > 0:15:31what on earth is this all about?
0:15:31 > 0:15:34And so then he opened a basket and he took out a rooster
0:15:34 > 0:15:38and he dipped the rooster's feet in red ink
0:15:38 > 0:15:42and he then plopped the rooster along the length of this blue strip.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46And then when he finished doing that, he said,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49"This is autumn leaves on the Tatsuta River,"
0:15:49 > 0:15:51which was a famous subject of classical painting.
0:15:51 > 0:15:53And that took everybody's breath away.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59His clever trick was a pure surprise to everyone present.
0:15:59 > 0:16:03Buncho, who was sitting next to Hokusai, said,
0:16:03 > 0:16:06"I could not keep my palms from sweating."
0:16:50 > 0:16:55When he was 50, he stopped doing a lot of the commercial prints that he
0:16:55 > 0:16:56did, and he just began travelling.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02He went down to Nagoya for a while, and then this friend of his,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05who was a pupil, said, "Look, stay with me as long as you want.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09"Here's materials, paint as much as you like, draw as much as you like."
0:17:09 > 0:17:13Then he invited a bunch of his friends for a party.
0:17:13 > 0:17:15And he said, "Tonight, Hokusai,
0:17:15 > 0:17:17"you're going to do some drawings for my friends."
0:17:21 > 0:17:24People would call out subjects and they'd say,
0:17:24 > 0:17:26"How about doing a dragon?"
0:17:26 > 0:17:28- And he'd just... - HE IMITATES DRAWING
0:17:28 > 0:17:29..draw a dragon.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32Or, "How about doing a prostitute?" you know?
0:17:51 > 0:17:55And that carried on through the night, and a publisher,
0:17:55 > 0:17:58who lived in that area, thought, this would make a great book to publish.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01And so they compiled all these things, and that was
0:18:01 > 0:18:03the first manga, which means random drawings.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06Enormously influential. And they really took off.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42Hokusai himself titled Hokusai Manga.
0:19:42 > 0:19:44He used the word manga.
0:19:44 > 0:19:50But each illustration is quite different from modern manga.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53It's a very good point. Hokusai's manga, when you look at it,
0:19:53 > 0:19:54it really draws you in.
0:19:54 > 0:19:55But there is no story line.
0:19:55 > 0:19:59Whereas Hokusai's illustrated novels propels you through visually,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03so Hokusai's manga and Hokusai's illustrated novels,
0:20:03 > 0:20:04when taken together,
0:20:04 > 0:20:07can be seen as a foundation for contemporary manga.
0:20:07 > 0:20:09They're separate and they're different,
0:20:09 > 0:20:13but they all are incremental steps to getting what we have today
0:20:13 > 0:20:16as a fully line-driven narrative.
0:21:20 > 0:21:23He did observe all kinds of things,
0:21:23 > 0:21:25all kinds of people.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29I mean, the drawings are marvellous drawings.
0:21:29 > 0:21:33They're beautiful. I mean, he's always looking fresh.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35He's a great artist, Hokusai.
0:21:35 > 0:21:36A great artist, yeah.
0:21:49 > 0:21:50Traditionally, Japanese people
0:21:50 > 0:21:53believe the zodiac cycle repeats every 60 years.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57So the big change comes when Hokusai turned 61.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01And there's a sense in which, if you live that long, you're born again.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05Your zodiac cycle is repeating so you can, in a sense,
0:22:05 > 0:22:07start your life again.
0:22:09 > 0:22:1460, for every Japanese person who should live that long, was a marker.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19It meant that the first significant part of your life was finished.
0:22:19 > 0:22:20And that, from now on,
0:22:20 > 0:22:22you had a whole different group of things
0:22:22 > 0:22:24that you should be attending to.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28Hokusai's never happy with one name.
0:22:28 > 0:22:30He keeps on kind of ringing the changes.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33Once he's passed 60, he becomes the old man, crazy to paint.
0:22:33 > 0:22:35So the changes, the big changes,
0:22:35 > 0:22:37seem to correspond to changes in style,
0:22:37 > 0:22:41changes in interest. We can see him embarking on a new phase of artistic experimentational growth.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50People think of Japan as closed during this period - it wasn't.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53The Dutch go up to Edo, now Tokyo, every year.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55They know that Hokusai is the biggest name in town.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57They commission paintings from him.
0:22:59 > 0:23:04The big commission of his early to middle 60s came in 1822.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06Dutch merchants, working in Japan,
0:23:06 > 0:23:11commissioned Hokusai to do a series of paintings showing typical scenes
0:23:11 > 0:23:14of Japanese life, but they're absolutely unique
0:23:14 > 0:23:18for the very interesting hybrid style that he came up with
0:23:18 > 0:23:21where there's a deep sense of spatial recession
0:23:21 > 0:23:22within the picture,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25a deep European-style perspective system.
0:23:25 > 0:23:28It's also as if there is a single light source
0:23:28 > 0:23:31casting shadows in the picture.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34This is completely revolutionary in a Japanese context.
0:23:34 > 0:23:37So we've got Japanese scenes painted in this hybrid,
0:23:37 > 0:23:40halfway between Japanese and European style.
0:23:47 > 0:23:51There's an incredible scene where travellers are suddenly caught in
0:23:51 > 0:23:53a thunderstorm.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55There's a lightning flash across the back of the picture.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58And the figures are caught in this fitful light.
0:23:58 > 0:23:59It's almost like a strobe light
0:23:59 > 0:24:01with a really dark, thunderous sky behind.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04And again, this is really totally revolutionary
0:24:04 > 0:24:05in a Japanese context.
0:24:09 > 0:24:11Things seem to be going well.
0:24:11 > 0:24:13He has this major commission from the Dutch which
0:24:13 > 0:24:15he successfully completes.
0:24:15 > 0:24:18But then, in the late 1820s,
0:24:18 > 0:24:20Hokusai seems to be hit by a succession
0:24:20 > 0:24:22of personal life challenges.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25He had a minor stroke of some kind.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29Then suddenly, in 1828, his second wife died.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34And he's constantly exasperated by the behaviour of his grandson,
0:24:34 > 0:24:35running up huge gambling debts.
0:24:37 > 0:24:40And Hokusai was continually paying off his debts.
0:24:40 > 0:24:41And so he got into debt.
0:24:41 > 0:24:46And finally, Hokusai lost his house and then took refuge in a temple.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48He hid out.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51This spring, no money,
0:24:51 > 0:24:52no clothes.
0:24:54 > 0:24:55Barely enough to eat.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59If I can't come to an arrangement by the middle of the second month...
0:25:01 > 0:25:02..then no spring for me.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07One of the key documents for visualising Hokusai in his 80s
0:25:07 > 0:25:09is a drawing
0:25:09 > 0:25:10which was done by one of his pupils.
0:25:10 > 0:25:12Tsuyuki Kosho is his name.
0:25:12 > 0:25:15And it shows Hokusai and his daughter, Oei,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18in very humble rented dwellings.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23Hokusai has a heater quilt pulled over him,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26and Tsuyuki quotes Hokusai.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31No matter who comes to visit, I never leave the heater.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35When I'm tired, I pick up the pillow beside me and go to sleep.
0:25:35 > 0:25:39When I wake from sleep, I pick up my brush and keep drawing.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43The 1820s is clearly a difficult decade,
0:25:43 > 0:25:45but that recession from the world
0:25:45 > 0:25:47is a way of pulling himself together
0:25:47 > 0:25:51and pulling together the ideas that are going to become the triumph of
0:25:51 > 0:25:54his next decade, the 1830s, his 70s.
0:25:54 > 0:25:55And it's at this point that we begin
0:25:55 > 0:25:59to see the germ of what will become the Thirty-six Views Of Mount Fuji.
0:26:13 > 0:26:14Ever since earliest recorded times,
0:26:14 > 0:26:17Mount Fuji has been important to Japanese people.
0:26:17 > 0:26:21It's by far the largest physical feature in the Japanese islands
0:26:21 > 0:26:25and dominates completely central Japan and the area around it.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28It was celebrated in literature, but more importantly, perhaps,
0:26:28 > 0:26:31for Hokusai, Fuji was always considered a deity.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41And the whole idea of the series
0:26:41 > 0:26:46Thirty-six Views Of Mount Fuji is to set up interesting pictures that
0:26:46 > 0:26:49make Mount Fuji the fulcrum of our world, the centre of our universe.
0:27:31 > 0:27:33I think, in the middle of his career, we can see his interest migrating.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35The human interest is there but, increasingly,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38his eye is drawn to the landscape behind it.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44Hokusai is the guy who enables landscape within the Japanese artistic tradition,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47the first one who begins to focus on the landscape as landscape.
0:28:20 > 0:28:25The Great Wave is undoubtedly Hokusai's most famous work by far.
0:28:25 > 0:28:29The Japanese title is Kanagawa-oki Nami Ura,
0:28:29 > 0:28:34which we translate as Under The Great Wave Off Kanagawa.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36And we're out at sea in the Pacific Ocean,
0:28:36 > 0:28:41looking back under this great sudden storm wave towards Mount Fuji on
0:28:41 > 0:28:43the horizon in the distance.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47Hokusai has digested the lessons of European perspective that he learnt
0:28:47 > 0:28:50in his middle years, and now he's playing with that.
0:28:50 > 0:28:54Mount Fuji is the highest physical feature in Japan by far.
0:28:54 > 0:28:57And yet Hokusai has arranged the picture
0:28:57 > 0:28:59so that it appears that Mount Fuji
0:28:59 > 0:29:02is dwarfed by the great storm wave, and the foam
0:29:02 > 0:29:04and the water that comes off the great wave
0:29:04 > 0:29:08then starts to seem like snow falling onto the peak of Mount Fuji,
0:29:08 > 0:29:11which famously was always snow-covered all the year round.
0:29:20 > 0:29:21Many people don't notice at first
0:29:21 > 0:29:24that there are actually boats in this picture.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26There are three of these fast delivery boats,
0:29:26 > 0:29:30and they've taken delivery of a catch from the fishing fleet,
0:29:30 > 0:29:32and they're trying to deliver it as fast as possible
0:29:32 > 0:29:34to the fish markets in the centre of Edo.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37And then suddenly, this freak wave has come up
0:29:37 > 0:29:39and the oarsmen are all cowering down.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41They've obviously made the decision
0:29:41 > 0:29:43to go straight through the wave rather than try and escape from it.
0:29:49 > 0:29:50So it's a huge drama,
0:29:50 > 0:29:52and these are very heroic people at work.
0:29:54 > 0:29:58It's typical of Hokusai to focus more on the world of working people
0:29:58 > 0:29:59than anything else.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07We have a relationship being described between a very dynamic
0:30:07 > 0:30:09world of water
0:30:09 > 0:30:12and of human endeavour dwarfed by the energies of nature.
0:30:13 > 0:30:16Then in the middle, we have Fuji - this unmoving thing,
0:30:16 > 0:30:19a still centre to a world of change.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25Most of the prints in the Thirty-six Views have some kind of relationship
0:30:25 > 0:30:27between human activity and the mountain.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31So we see people in the landscape with their hats blowing off...
0:30:41 > 0:30:43..people working in Edo itself.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47Hokusai is interested in the human world,
0:30:47 > 0:30:49he's interested in the natural world,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51he's interested in the spiritual world.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54Above all, he's interested in the relationship between these things.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02You know, the sea is totally
0:31:02 > 0:31:04in charge of these little fragile boats.
0:31:04 > 0:31:09And so, however beautiful a Hokusai work is,
0:31:09 > 0:31:13it is this sense of awe in the face of nature
0:31:13 > 0:31:16that, at once, one is aware of.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29This curve of the wave,
0:31:29 > 0:31:32which I find to be the most difficult thing
0:31:32 > 0:31:33when painting the sea,
0:31:33 > 0:31:35is made from many curves.
0:31:35 > 0:31:41And the fact that that line changes adds to the movement of the wave.
0:31:41 > 0:31:47I mean, what is exciting about it, of course, is that distilled moment
0:31:47 > 0:31:48before this wave is going to crash.
0:31:52 > 0:31:55I see it in one of his earlier paintings -
0:31:55 > 0:31:56an early wave...
0:31:59 > 0:32:01..which is pretty solid...
0:32:02 > 0:32:06..and static. I mean, it could be a building, really.
0:32:06 > 0:32:10It's doesn't immediately say water.
0:32:10 > 0:32:14I mean, I think there were 20 years or something between these waves, and...
0:32:15 > 0:32:20Ah! It's a sort of earlier prelude leading up to...
0:32:21 > 0:32:27..what has become the iconic image of Hokusai.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51That image of The Great Wave
0:32:51 > 0:32:53has entered not just my consciousness,
0:32:53 > 0:32:58but the world's consciousness, and so it's sort of inside one.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00You know, you're always up against it,
0:33:00 > 0:33:02like you're up against Rembrandt in a self-portrait.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09I'm really coming to think that, in this image particularly,
0:33:09 > 0:33:12Hokusai is inventing modern animation.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15The Great Wave is caught
0:33:15 > 0:33:17just at the moment where it's about to fall.
0:33:17 > 0:33:21And all of the little tentacles of foam are just caught in suspended
0:33:21 > 0:33:25animation, like the claws of an animal,
0:33:25 > 0:33:27coming down, threatening these fishing boats.
0:33:27 > 0:33:31This, to me, is anticipating modern animated cartoons.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35Disney animation, for example, is very similar.
0:33:35 > 0:33:38You've got a bold outline and very flat colour.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40And it's entirely probable that
0:33:40 > 0:33:42people who worked at Disney in the early days
0:33:42 > 0:33:46had seen Japanese prints, had possibly even seen the technique.
0:33:46 > 0:33:50And that aesthetic carried over into the early days of films.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00The Great Wave would have been printed from
0:34:00 > 0:34:01four planks of cherry wood.
0:34:03 > 0:34:06One side was so-called key block,
0:34:06 > 0:34:09which would have printed the outlines and the text on the image.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17The rest of the blocks would have been left in
0:34:17 > 0:34:20relief to print each of the colours in succession.
0:34:26 > 0:34:29Hokusai would have been involved in making the decisions about what
0:34:29 > 0:34:32colours to print, including the brilliant Prussian blue pigment.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35But as the printing run wore on,
0:34:35 > 0:34:38the publisher and the printers would start to cut corners.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41And sometimes, the colours would change.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51The audience for a print like this is anybody.
0:34:52 > 0:34:56If you had just more than the price of a double helping of noodles,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59you could buy a Great Wave in 1831.
0:34:59 > 0:35:00These are mass-produced -
0:35:00 > 0:35:04maybe as many as 8,000 impressions of this design printed at the time.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06It's an incredibly democratic art form.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21NHK, Japan's national broadcaster, has brought over special 8K cameras,
0:35:21 > 0:35:24and they're going to be filming in the most incredible detail.
0:35:24 > 0:35:26And therefore, we can blow things up
0:35:26 > 0:35:28and start to really appreciate the detail
0:35:28 > 0:35:30of these amazing works by Hokusai.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36There's a level of detail that we're able to see
0:35:36 > 0:35:39that's beyond what we can see with our naked eyes.
0:35:39 > 0:35:43We begin noticing things that we had never noticed before
0:35:43 > 0:35:48when we've been looking at them for years and years in the flesh.
0:35:55 > 0:35:58- This is a treat.- Yes, it is. It sure is.
0:36:03 > 0:36:04In Japan, interestingly enough,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06the most important print is not The Great Wave.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09The most important print is what we know as Red Fuji.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12Clearly, in Japan, in the modern period, Fuji itself
0:36:12 > 0:36:16became the centre of a very important set of ideas about national identity.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20You didn't want Fuji from a distance - you wanted Fuji in its glory.
0:36:28 > 0:36:30Oh, God, look at that!
0:36:30 > 0:36:31Wow!
0:36:32 > 0:36:34Oh, that's astonishing!
0:36:38 > 0:36:39What's happening here, I wonder?
0:36:41 > 0:36:43I'm seeing something like a wiping line.
0:36:43 > 0:36:46- Yes, yeah.- Are you seeing those kind of horizontal...- Oh, I do.
0:36:46 > 0:36:51The top lines of these clouds have been fairly smoothly cut
0:36:51 > 0:36:54whereas the bottom edge consistently has been abraded.
0:36:54 > 0:36:59He's using really abrasive leaf over rush.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01You use it as a kind of sandpaper to...
0:37:02 > 0:37:04..give it... It's not a sharp line.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08It gives it a kind of fudged quality.
0:37:08 > 0:37:10It couldn't be anything else.
0:37:10 > 0:37:12It couldn't be anything else. What an amazing effect.
0:37:12 > 0:37:13Uh-huh.
0:37:13 > 0:37:16I mean, it's brilliant. It's a brilliant conception.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18Because, otherwise, it would look totally dead.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20- Yeah.- I suspect a lot of the reproductions that have been made,
0:37:20 > 0:37:23- it probably is just a straight line. - Mm-hm.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33What could that be? Nothing but surprises.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39Certainly, this is a really large volume as well.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43When I started really working on his art,
0:37:43 > 0:37:47I realised that what came to be known as Red Fuji
0:37:47 > 0:37:50Hokusai never meant to be read.
0:37:50 > 0:37:53In fact, he probably would have been scandalised if he saw it looking
0:37:53 > 0:37:56like it looks in these pictures here.
0:37:56 > 0:38:01But I was visiting a Swiss collector in Basel, Dr Walter Verling,
0:38:01 > 0:38:04who had a small collection, and we were looking at his prints,
0:38:04 > 0:38:06and then he said, "I have one other print I'd like to show you,
0:38:06 > 0:38:10"but I have to apologise for it because it's so faded."
0:38:10 > 0:38:14And then he pulled out this print, which is in the albums here.
0:38:14 > 0:38:15And I saw what he meant
0:38:15 > 0:38:18because the colours were very light in the sky
0:38:18 > 0:38:19and on the mountain itself.
0:38:19 > 0:38:23And it was a very different kind of tonality and a very different effect
0:38:23 > 0:38:27than on all the impressions I had ever seen in my life, which were
0:38:27 > 0:38:30hundreds, but then I looked and noticed that there's
0:38:30 > 0:38:32a little penumbra of blue around
0:38:32 > 0:38:33the tip of the mountain.
0:38:33 > 0:38:35And I realised that that had to have been printed
0:38:35 > 0:38:38specially from a specially inked and carved block,
0:38:38 > 0:38:39and it was intentional.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42It wasn't accidental. And so then I looked more carefully,
0:38:42 > 0:38:46and I realised there's nothing accidental about the print at all,
0:38:46 > 0:38:49and that that was the earliest impression in the world
0:38:49 > 0:38:52and that that was what Hokusai saw and meant to be seen.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01It was harder to print for various reasons.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04And the publishers, who weren't very scrupulous,
0:39:04 > 0:39:05they were just cranking them out,
0:39:05 > 0:39:08and so everybody got caught up with Red Fuji.
0:39:08 > 0:39:13And it was enormously popular in his lifetime and afterwards.
0:39:17 > 0:39:21What he was in fact revealing was the quality of light
0:39:21 > 0:39:23just before dawn.
0:39:23 > 0:39:24It was like a revelation.
0:39:30 > 0:39:31Oh, God!
0:39:36 > 0:39:37Incredible.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42What this technology has given me a chance to discover
0:39:42 > 0:39:44is that the Pink Fuji
0:39:44 > 0:39:47is even more complex than I had even dreamed of
0:39:47 > 0:39:51because I've been used to thinking that these little treelike shapes at
0:39:51 > 0:39:54the base of the mountain were all printed from one block.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57And, in fact, they're printed from three different blocks,
0:39:57 > 0:40:01inked with very subtly different shades of blue.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05And so it gives the whole forest a very lively quality,
0:40:05 > 0:40:07which is extraordinary.
0:40:08 > 0:40:13You think of it as such a monumental and abstracted design but, actually,
0:40:13 > 0:40:15there's so much more subtlety in there.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20Up here, you see these little triangles of pale green
0:40:20 > 0:40:23along the slope of Mount Fuji?
0:40:23 > 0:40:25Never, ever noticed that before.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28But it's clear that all of this has been very carefully calculated.
0:40:28 > 0:40:30And it gives life.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33And it's almost like the trees are shimmering, aren't they?
0:40:33 > 0:40:35- They are, yeah.- They're alive.
0:40:44 > 0:40:49The discovery of this new version of the Red Fuji is a wonderful example
0:40:49 > 0:40:54of how something that has become a conventional icon of Japanese art
0:40:54 > 0:40:57in general is actually not what Hokusai had in mind at all.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01So what I was able to say to the Swiss collector was, Walter,
0:41:01 > 0:41:05this is not a faded print.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08VOICE BREAKING: This is the best one I've ever seen.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11It's really a moment for both of us.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19The Thirty-six Views Of Mount Fuji did prove incredibly popular.
0:41:19 > 0:41:21And then, straight on from that,
0:41:21 > 0:41:24they start to issue even more Fuji designs -
0:41:24 > 0:41:27the famous One Hundred Views Of Mount Fuji.
0:41:27 > 0:41:31And yet further opportunity for Hokusai
0:41:31 > 0:41:34to explore Fuji from all sides,
0:41:34 > 0:41:36in all weathers, from all vantage points.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39And, in fact, some of the compositions in this book are incredibly eccentric.
0:41:39 > 0:41:43He's deliberately stretching the limits of composition
0:41:43 > 0:41:44to pay homage to the mountain.
0:41:48 > 0:41:52At the back of volume one of One Hundred Views Of Mount Fuji is like
0:41:52 > 0:41:54a little potted autobiography.
0:41:54 > 0:41:58This is Hokusai looking back at his career up to this point,
0:41:58 > 0:42:01up to his mid-70s, and basically dismissing it.
0:42:04 > 0:42:09From the age of six, I had the desire to copy the form of things.
0:42:09 > 0:42:13And from about 50, my pictures were frequently published.
0:42:14 > 0:42:20But until the age of 70, nothing I drew was worthy of notice.
0:42:20 > 0:42:21At 73 years,
0:42:21 > 0:42:26I was somewhat able to fathom the growth of plants and trees...
0:42:27 > 0:42:30..and the structure of birds,
0:42:30 > 0:42:32animals, insects and fish.
0:42:34 > 0:42:41Thus, when I reach 80 years, I hope to have made increasing progress,
0:42:41 > 0:42:45and at 90 to see further into the underlying principle of things
0:42:45 > 0:42:51so that, at 100 years, I will have achieved a divine state in my art.
0:42:51 > 0:42:58And at 110, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive.
0:43:04 > 0:43:07Hokusai is saying, well, you know, I've been pretty mediocre,
0:43:07 > 0:43:09but I've done a lot of work.
0:43:09 > 0:43:10But you haven't seen anything yet
0:43:10 > 0:43:13until you've seen what's going to happen when I go forward from this.
0:43:15 > 0:43:16He always thought he'd get better.
0:43:16 > 0:43:21Well, the Chinese have a saying, painting is an old man's art.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27Meaning you should get better because you know more
0:43:27 > 0:43:30and you're more experienced at doing it.
0:43:30 > 0:43:35I like to think I'm like that, actually.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38People say I've gone off, but I don't think so.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47There is a number of quite informal self-portraits by Hokusai from
0:43:47 > 0:43:49different stages in his career.
0:43:49 > 0:43:55And he's beguilingly informal in the way he depicts himself.
0:43:55 > 0:43:57It's not a pompous view at all.
0:43:59 > 0:44:00In the early period,
0:44:00 > 0:44:03when he's working a lot on the popular literature,
0:44:03 > 0:44:06he comes in almost as a tiny cartoon character in some of the pictures.
0:44:08 > 0:44:12But later in life, thinking of his 80s,
0:44:12 > 0:44:15he does a little lightning sketch of himself pointing,
0:44:15 > 0:44:19gesticulating quite excitedly to something outside the picture
0:44:19 > 0:44:22and seems to be talking to somebody at the same time.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25And then the text above the self-portrait
0:44:25 > 0:44:27is apologising for not producing
0:44:27 > 0:44:31what the publisher wants and saying that he's sending instead
0:44:31 > 0:44:35some old drawings which Hokusai did in his 40s, so four decades earlier.
0:44:35 > 0:44:39And although he was an immature artist at that time,
0:44:39 > 0:44:41maybe there's something amongst these drawings that you can use.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50He trundled around for his entire life with a cart
0:44:50 > 0:44:52that had his archive in it -
0:44:52 > 0:44:55all of his drawings, all of his copies of paintings that he'd seen.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02But in 1839, his house caught fire.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04He jumped out the window with his brush
0:45:04 > 0:45:07and his daughter jumped out the window with her brush,
0:45:07 > 0:45:08but that cart was burned.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16Hokusai rushed out of the house with only a painting brush in one hand.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20His daughter, Oei, immediately followed him.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24They lost all their possessions, clothes and painting materials.
0:45:25 > 0:45:27They were nearly naked and looked like homeless beggars.
0:45:34 > 0:45:37And from that time on, he didn't do any more drawings,
0:45:37 > 0:45:39he didn't do any more prints, to speak of,
0:45:39 > 0:45:41and his life took a radical change.
0:45:43 > 0:45:48In Hokusai's 80s, and certainly in the last three years, 88, 89, 90,
0:45:48 > 0:45:51it's almost exclusively paintings that he's working on.
0:45:58 > 0:45:59I mean, he was 88.
0:45:59 > 0:46:00He was going for it.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02He was just, like, "I'm going to do something new."
0:46:05 > 0:46:09And he, at that point, couldn't care whether anybody else notices or not.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13He was going to go as far as he could for as long as he could.
0:46:16 > 0:46:18In his last years, we have a sequence of paintings
0:46:18 > 0:46:19where he's trying to
0:46:19 > 0:46:22bring the world as we know it to life on the page.
0:46:23 > 0:46:27He's trying to reach beyond the surface of things
0:46:27 > 0:46:29to the life of things.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32And in the British Museum, there's a wonderful scroll of a duck -
0:46:32 > 0:46:34the duck is actually swimming on the page.
0:46:46 > 0:46:49Wow! Astonishing.
0:46:49 > 0:46:51Just astonishing.
0:46:51 > 0:46:53I'm so much more aware of individual strokes.
0:46:53 > 0:46:55Yeah, absolutely.
0:46:55 > 0:46:59Cos you can see that there's lots of small, black accents
0:46:59 > 0:47:00which are separate strokes.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02Completely separate strokes.
0:47:02 > 0:47:04- And different colours.- Black on top of grey.
0:47:04 > 0:47:06Yeah.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08It's a wonderful, wonderful painting.
0:47:08 > 0:47:10When I look at the feathers, you can
0:47:10 > 0:47:13just see that they're varying thicknesses of line,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16they're spaced not evenly, not uniformly.
0:47:16 > 0:47:21I mean, there's just a rawness about the detail in that painting.
0:47:21 > 0:47:23Nobody but he could have drawn the ducks.
0:50:28 > 0:50:35HE CHANTS AND SINGS
0:50:37 > 0:50:39I think that, like many people in Japan,
0:50:39 > 0:50:42he had completely internalised Buddhism.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45It wasn't a set of beliefs, it was a way that you lived your life,
0:50:45 > 0:50:47and he saw it all around him.
0:50:50 > 0:50:55The way that he drew birds in the sky, the way that he drew plants,
0:50:55 > 0:50:58it isn't just a person who is just sitting in front of a plant
0:50:58 > 0:50:59and transcribing it
0:50:59 > 0:51:00or sketching it out.
0:51:00 > 0:51:05It was a person who digested it, made it their own, internalised it,
0:51:05 > 0:51:08and had become the plant or the fish or whatever it was.
0:51:10 > 0:51:13When I'm looking at Hokusai's late paintings,
0:51:13 > 0:51:15they're the most incredible art works.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17Technically, they're extraordinary.
0:51:17 > 0:51:19But it's not just a tour de force.
0:51:19 > 0:51:24There's a vital consciousness inhabiting those creatures,
0:51:24 > 0:51:28those figures, that is looking out at me, wanting to engage with me.
0:51:28 > 0:51:31And that just fills you with energy.
0:51:33 > 0:51:39The Chinese say you need three things for painting - the hand,
0:51:39 > 0:51:43the eye and the heart. Two won't do,
0:51:43 > 0:51:46which is, I think, very, very good.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16It's a spectacular painting.
0:52:16 > 0:52:18Absolutely incredible.
0:52:18 > 0:52:20Both of them are. What a pair.
0:52:27 > 0:52:28I mean, there's no doubt about it,
0:52:28 > 0:52:30that they were meant to be hung together as a pair.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35Cos we have the same mounting, the same size,
0:52:35 > 0:52:37the dragon and the tiger is a traditional subject
0:52:37 > 0:52:39in East Asian art, and...
0:52:40 > 0:52:44..they have pretty much identical signatures from Hokusai's 90th year.
0:52:50 > 0:52:55The dragon is crawling up out of a tornado that it's making itself
0:52:55 > 0:52:59and staring out at us with this incredibly inhabited expression.
0:53:02 > 0:53:04Hokusai has painted dragons dozens of times
0:53:04 > 0:53:06at this point in his career.
0:53:06 > 0:53:10But at 90, in the final months of his life, God knows how he did it,
0:53:10 > 0:53:11but he cracked it.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16We felt, when we were looking at images of this painting,
0:53:16 > 0:53:18that it must have been painted in reverse -
0:53:18 > 0:53:21basically, starting with the colour of the paper,
0:53:21 > 0:53:22which is the highlights
0:53:22 > 0:53:24all over the composition,
0:53:24 > 0:53:26and then working back through
0:53:26 > 0:53:29a succession of ever darker shades of grey ink
0:53:29 > 0:53:32until you finally get to the black. So you're working in reverse.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35Hokusai has mentally worked all of this out before he even touches
0:53:35 > 0:53:37the brush to the paper.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41So, underneath all of these individual dragon scales
0:53:41 > 0:53:43is a line which has completely different character
0:53:43 > 0:53:44from its neighbour.
0:53:44 > 0:53:48He's just totally incapable of painting the same line twice.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52But always remembering to leave, at the edge of the spines,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55the unpainted paper as the highlight.
0:53:56 > 0:53:59You can't make any mistakes with this kind of painting.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01It's not an oil painting where you could rub something out
0:54:01 > 0:54:02and try it again.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05Once you put the brush to paper, you're committed.
0:54:05 > 0:54:08I just... Full of awe.
0:54:08 > 0:54:09How did he do it?
0:54:25 > 0:54:29In 1849, he was renting a lodging from a temple called Henjoin,
0:54:29 > 0:54:32doing the paintings of his final few months.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37He died at the end of the fourth month of his 90th year,
0:54:37 > 0:54:41so there's just a few months when the paintings which are signed "aged 90", must have
0:54:41 > 0:54:45been done. And these include the sublime painting
0:54:45 > 0:54:48of the dragon flying into the sky around Mount Fuji
0:54:48 > 0:54:51and going off up into the heavens...
0:54:51 > 0:54:52It's glorious.
0:54:53 > 0:54:55..which is rightly regarded as
0:54:55 > 0:54:58one of the most sublime late Hokusai works.
0:54:58 > 0:55:01It's so moving because he's bringing together the imagery
0:55:01 > 0:55:03of such a long career.
0:55:08 > 0:55:10You take one look at the painting,
0:55:10 > 0:55:14and what jumps out at you is this startling, almost frightful,
0:55:14 > 0:55:16oversimplification of Mount Fuji.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23Then, to the top of the painting,
0:55:23 > 0:55:26is a smudge, which you induce is clouds,
0:55:26 > 0:55:28and then in the smudge there's some kind of a figure.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35But then you see it's a dragon floating up and
0:55:35 > 0:55:38drifting up above the mountain into the sky and disappearing.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42And then you think, well, son of a gun! You know.
0:55:42 > 0:55:46That's almost like an epitaph for himself.
0:55:46 > 0:55:48He's saying, "So long," you know.
0:55:48 > 0:55:52"Enjoy my work." You know, "You will really get a lot
0:55:52 > 0:55:55"out of these pictures if you get into it like I did!"
0:56:10 > 0:56:13In the little inscription that Hokusai puts next to his signature,
0:56:13 > 0:56:16he says, "I'm aged 90, I was born in a Dragon Year."
0:56:18 > 0:56:23I am painting this on a Dragon Day in my 90th year.
0:56:45 > 0:56:50HE PRAYS
0:57:13 > 0:57:18There's something so outstandingly dedicated about Hokusai
0:57:18 > 0:57:21and about his stalwart approach to what he was doing.
0:57:21 > 0:57:23It's sort of incomparable.
0:57:23 > 0:57:27I think that he was one of the great heroes.
0:57:27 > 0:57:29S... Sorry, I'm crying.
0:57:34 > 0:57:35He never gave up.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39He kept experimenting.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41He kept doing new things.
0:57:41 > 0:57:45He just felt that he had a connection with life, which was precious.
0:57:48 > 0:57:50He worked all his life.
0:57:50 > 0:57:51He had a long life.
0:57:51 > 0:57:54I mean, he just worked, didn't he? That's all he did.
0:57:54 > 0:57:56Well, that's all I do, actually.
0:57:56 > 0:58:00But I'm not as good as Hokusai.
0:58:05 > 0:58:09If heaven will afford me five more years of life...
0:58:10 > 0:58:13..then I'll manage to become...
0:58:14 > 0:58:15..a true artist.