Hokusai

beyond the Great Wave

$54.99

This book is not yet published, but will be available from October 2025.

ISBN: 9780500481189 Category:

Description

An important publication on Hokusai’s remarkable late work, originally published to accompany the acclaimed retrospective at the British Museum and now available in a compact edition.

Hokusai created sublime works during the last thirty years of his life, right up to his death at the age of ninety. Publications have hitherto presented his long career as a chronological sequence. This book takes a fresh approach based on innovative scholarship: thematic groupings of works are related to the major spiritual and artistic quests of his life.

Hokusai’s personal beliefs are studied here through major brush paintings, drawings, woodblock prints and illustrated books. The book gives due attention to the contribution of Hokusai’s daughter Eijo (Oi), an accomplished artist in her own right. Hokusai continually explored the mutability and minutiae of natural phenomena in his art. His late subjects and styles were based on a mastery of eclectic Japanese, Chinese and European techniques and an encyclopaedic knowledge of nature, myth, and history. Mount Fuji was the most significant model for the artist in his quest for immortality. This collection of Hokusai’s works draws on the finest to be found in Japan and around the world, making this a uniquely valuable overview of the artist’s late career.

Additional information

Dimensions 22.5 x 25.2 cm
Publisher name Thames and Hudson Ltd
Publication date 1 October 2025
Number of pages 352
Format Hardback
Contributors Edited by Timothy Clark
Dimensions 22.5 x 25.2 cm
Weight g
Timothy Clark is Head of the Japanese Section in the Department of Asia at the British Museum. Roger Keyes was a leading Hokusai scholar.