Hokusai艺术作品研究——葛饰北斋

Hokusai is not the most outstanding artist in Japanese cultural history, nor a "simple craftsman." Instead, I argue, he is an exceptional craftsman and a representative of Eastern art, who had played a significant role in disseminating Eastern culture to the West and influenced European art in the latter half of the 19th century. Hokusai's works are praised for several outstanding characteristics, including their composition (or lack of composition), vivid use of colour, painting technique and brushstrokes, and the philosophy behind his works.

The first unique feature of Hokusai's prints is his unique approach to composition, which generally eschews traditional academic linear perspective rules in favour of a more irregular, asymmetrical aesthetic. Rather than directly adopting the rationalism of European art, he incorporated the techniques of assembled, montage and edited linear perspective as diversified elements in his artworks. His works are often frameless, lacking a linear horizon or background to provide a sense of depth in space. As such, his composition is free of form. With elements arranged in a way that deliberately ignores traditional perspectives, his composition is highly decorative and strikingly asymmetrical. This innovative approach to creation stems from the Japanese spirit of innovation and the desire to create works that are not bound by traditional artistic conventions. For example, Hokusai's landscapes often focus on a small part of the natural world. The foreground and figures made up most of the composition. This approach was similar to the use of close-ups in photography, where images are boldly cropped to highlight only the most essential elements. Also, Hokusai is particularly adept at creating unique pieces from different perspectives, which has become one of the defining features of his work. Taking Katsushika Hokusai's "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" from his series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji" as an example, he is known for using perspective to enhance the spatial depth of his paintings. The work's composition is based on geometric shapes such as triangles and circles and uses a low-angle view to create immersion. In the painting, the billowing waves are in stark contrast to the calm of Mount Fuji behind them, and the waves are in sharp contrast to the rolling boats. The layout is both striking and visually harmonious. The use of foreground compression creates a clear sense of layering, and with large waves as the main subject, the painting is considered a typical example of golden proportion and geometric structure. Having looked at this painting, viewers can often feel the sense of pressure when the waves hit, and the author even describes the waves as monsters, which increases the terror. In the works, nature releases overwhelming power to human beings, and the sailor's attitude reflects the Japanese people's worship of nature and sense of danger; the painting's fearless spirit of riding the waves and longing for life is the philosophy that Hokusai tried to convey. The iconic "Wave's Hand" has become one of the world's most famous icons of ukiyo-e. Vincent van Gogh admired the work so much that he incorporated its depiction techniques into his painting Starry Night, creating an excessively impressionistic work.

The second characteristic of Hokusai's works is his excellent use of bright primary colours, which revolutionized the painting space of the Renaissance period. His innovative use of colours provided his works with a richness of expression, a truthfulness of emotion, and a sense of elegance, energy and fantasy. The vivid and eye-catching colours in his ukiyo-e style reflect Hokusai's artistic style, particularly evident in his bold use of Prussian blue chemical pigment. One of Hokusai's masterpieces in the series "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji," "Fine Wind, Clear Morning," utilizes the abrupt clash of large, bright red and blue colours. Hokusai harmoniously blends the relationship between colour and form. Also, the transition and blending between objects better exemplify the picture's layering. The white clouds piled on top of each other in the blue sky give the painting a sense of wider space. The distant horizon transitioning into a light blue not only enriches the picture but also reduces the rigidity caused by a significant colour block. At the same time, the work highlights the magnificent Mount Fuji, filled with transitional red colours.

The third unique feature of Hokusai's prints is his exceptional technique and brushwork, with philosophy. He used a transcendental viewpoint to depict ordinary people and used processes of fixed image for effective reproduction. His work, such as "Hokusai Manga," shows a variety of subjects with agility in the brush, rapidity in sketching, and a vivid depiction of human gestures. In addition, his attention to detail in tools, buildings, and clothing provides valuable historical references for studying Japanese history and culture. As for philosophy, Katsushika Hokusai shifted the focus of ukiyo-e from the eroticism of Yoshiwara to Japan's beautiful natural landscapes, celebrating the country's natural beauty, successfully resonating with audiences and opening up a new mood of ukiyo-e with landscape paintings. On the other hand, Hokusai Manga reflects the Japanese philosophy Mono no aware: which embraces the transience of life and the fleeting nature of all things, expressing reverence towards life and nature through painting animals, plants, and humans with emotions. However, he is not the greatest artist in Japan because his works lack originality in design and philosophy, the memory of hand and a high reputation based on the ideas of German idealism and orientalism that were prevalent at the time. Firstly, despite his "vulgarity" being seen as a challenge to the refined conservative oil paintings of the time, in terms of technique, his success and completion cannot compare to the art that inspired philosophical contemplation and societal trends during the Zen Buddhist era in the 15th century or the Renaissance period. Secondly, the birth of ukiyo-e is closely related to the social life and cultural development of Japanese commoners, and the art style of "genre painting" gradually tends to be vulgar to satisfy people's erotic desires. Some works lack composition because of distorted tech perspectives. Thirdly, impressionism's colour technique and creative process differ from ukiyo-e. Although Hokusai's landscape paintings opened up another avenue for Japanese ukiyo-e, he needed to be more faithful to nature. He did not capture life spontaneously like in impressionism but instead trained his "memory of hand" by repeatedly copying models of masters. Fourthly, Hokusai’s artworks were created during the historical period when Japan needed to promote its own culture to establish national confidence actively and establish the concept of "Japanism”. Yet, the official academic institutions in Japan did not recognize Hokusai’s absolute uniqueness and greatness in this context. Fifthly, I believe that the social and cultural background of the time shaped him rather than his genius transcending the era. Because the ukiyo-e style is not originated in traditional Japanese art. It is a mixed "Eastern style" that incorporates Chinese art, Western perspective sketches, and Japanese social customs. The imagery of pastoral poetry was not created by Hokusai himself but originated from China, and the adherence to nature was not created by Hokusai himself but by Japan's traditional aesthetics of melancholy beauty. The exaggerated and bizarre techniques and emotional outbursts were influenced by the social atmosphere of Japan's Yoshiwara, Kabuki, and ukiyo-e. The high-level handling of flat colours and layers in ukiyo-e also drew inspiration from Chinese rubbings. Finally, I believe that part of his success and reputation was based on the political viewpoint differences between the Republicans and the official conservative factions of the French art academy and the exaggerated adoration of the people's rebellion against the official.

However, this does not deny Hokusai's importance and influence as a great artisan in global art history and the unique cultural and historical significance of his works. Inaga refers to Ernest F. Fenollosa as an "Anglo-Saxon specialist" and "connoisseur," in contrast to the terminology of "French amateurs" is significant because we need to understand and understand why Hokusai’s reputation related to context of Japonism and how it improve the European art more comprehensively and objectively. By asserting Hokusai’s artwork from different perspectives of different artistic factions and political parties, one can understand the characteristics and value of Hokusai's works more comprehensively and objectively. From the civil and official perspectives of the connoisseur and amateurs, we can have a better understanding of the folk perspective and the historical, cultural, and social background of 19 century art on the one hand and the more comprehensive and authoritative official views from French art school on the other, which helps us to better understand and analyze the social background at that time and the value of Hokusai's works.

Hokusai liked to depict the everyday life of ordinary people. If I were an artist, I would also want to depict ordinary people with transcendental viewpoints and use bright and intense colours. Because bright colours are positive, I want to convey the love and beauty in ordinary people's lives and spread them to more people to balance the visual effect, I'll try to reflect the social reality and promote social progress. As a practicing artist, the opinion of a scholar like Inaga matters but is optional because the opinion is instructive but not necessarily accurate. Therefore, I should stick to my creative ideas and artistic style, have independent judgment, and constantly learn and absorb different viewpoints to create better artwork. Taking "Western-Style Painting: Four Stages of Acceptance" as an example, Historical writing refers to the objective recording of history, mainly describing the objective development track of events and significant events. The advantage of this kind of article is that it is more reliable and accurate, but the disadvantage is that it needs to provide people with multiple perspectives. On the other hand, Historiographical writing such as "The Making of Hokusai's Reputation in the Context of Japonisme" is a subjective review of the past. Various viewpoints are expounded, discussed, and evaluated, which can supplement the objective history and allow me to better understand the value of works from different artistic views. It is a good way for the public to learn to appreciate art and improve its quality. I learned a lot from the technical terms and theoretical discussion. The disadvantage is that the subjectivity of the article is too strong and might lead to bias, we should think rationally after reading.

Overall, I don't entirely agree with Inaga's assertion that Hokusai is the eternal man, the greatest creator, and the heroic order. The author's admiration has been overly heroic and has become a cult of personality. Moreover, Hokusai doesn't deserve his reputation as the most excellent artist in the history of Japanese cultural production because his paintings are the symbolic embodiment of a collection of the East Asian art style, and thus subjectivity of objects, connotation philosophy and technology are not original enough. But I agree that Hokusai has permanent and profound traits of the Asiatic soul, and high expressive power, playing a groundbreaking role in art at that time and even now.

Reference

Inaga, S. (2003). The Making of Hokusai’s Reputation in the Context of Japonisme. Japan Review, 15, 77–100. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25791270