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Signature of Katsushika Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai

A sample of Hokusai's brushed signature, one of the many names he used throughout his career.

This is Hokusai's own brushed signature, used to mark his work under one of his many art names.

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Two vertical columns of black East Asian brush calligraphy on a white background. The top character is 北 and the bottom character is a more elaborate character written in bold black strokes.
Signature of Katsushika Hokusai.

About this source

What it is

This image shows a brush-written signature of Katsushika Hokusai, two vertical columns of East Asian calligraphy in bold black strokes.

Why it matters

Hokusai is known to have used more than thirty different art names over his lifetime, each often marking a new stage in his work. A signature like this helps identify which period or name a particular piece belongs to and shows how seriously Japanese artists treated naming and self-presentation.

Look closer

  • What do the brushstrokes tell you about how quickly or carefully this signature was written?
  • Why might an artist change his name many times across a career?
  • How might historians use a signature like this to date or verify a work?

This document is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Hokusai on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Woodcut print in blue, cream and tan tones of a huge curling wave with claw-like foam fingers rising over two boats full of rowers. Small Mount Fuji appears in the distance under a pale sky. Japanese calligraphy sits in a cartouche at upper left.Painting

Primary source

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

Katsushika Hokusai · 1830

Woodblock print page from Hokusai Manga with Japanese characters. Two men carry loads on poles over their shoulders; the man on the right carries a large hanging sack. A child carries a basket on a pole, and a crouching figure with a basket sits in the lower center beside a large basket.Painting

Primary source

Man with Filarial Elephantiasis

Katsushika Hokusai · 1834

Woodcut print in ink on paper showing a scene at a wooden outhouse. A samurai with two swords peers out from a window of the latrine building. Outside, a bald man carries a large wooden bucket on a pole, and another man crouches in the foreground. Japanese text and a signature appear in the margins.Painting

Primary source

Samurai Visiting a Latrine

Hokusai Katsushika · 1834

Colour woodblock print of Mount Fuji with a red-brown peak streaked with white snow, under a deep blue sky filled with rows of white, layered clouds. Dark green slopes fill the lower foreground. A vertical title cartouche with printed characters sits at the upper left.Painting

Primary source

Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1830-1832

Woodblock print of a red-and-yellow rowing boat on a dark blue pond with lotus leaves. Several women in red and pink robes sit and kneel in the boat, one at the stern holding a long pole, others reaching toward the water. A green bank with bushes is at left, and a poem cartouche is at upper right.Painting

Primary source

Women in a Rowing Boat on a Lotus Pond

Hokusai Katsushika

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