Katsu Shunrō (Katsushika Hokusai)
ca. 1779-94
Donated by the Homma family
This is an “uki-e” work, which employs Western-style linear perspective. It portrays in fine detail the tense meeting between the rival rulers Xiang Yu and Emperor Gaozu at Swan Goose Gate.
This is an uki-e piece from Katsushika Hokusai’s early period, when, as a pupil of Katsukawa Shunshō, he went by the penname of Shunrō. It is the only work of his currently known to have used a historical incident from China as its basis.
Katsushika Hokusai (1760 – 1849) was an ukiyo-e artist of the late Edo period. At the age of 18, he became a pupil of Katsukawa Shunshō, and at the age of 20 he began releasing multi-colored woodblock prints under the name of Katsukawa Shunrō. He conducted research into the styles of the Kanō and Rinpa schools, as well as Western and Chinese painting, creating works on numerous genres ranging from prints of actors and warriors, paintings of noted places, portraits of beautiful women, and paintings of flowers and birds. During the Bunsei period (1818-1831), he worked on numerous picture books and illustrated novels, among them his influential “Hokusai Manga.” As he approached the age of 60, he concentrated on landscape woodblock prints, such as his “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji.”