Why is so little known about Hokusai, Japan’s ‘Great Wave’ artist?

Hokusai Japan Film Festival Script writer Len Kawahara

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This year’s Japanese Film Festival will open with a new biopic delving into the life and times of Katsushika Hokusai, one of Japan’s most influential artists. 'HOKUSAI' scriptwriter and actor Len Kawahara says recreating the artist’s journey was 'like joining the dots' and that his 200-year-old artworks contain messages still relevant today.

You may not know the artist’s name, but you will most likely recognise his most famous works like The Great Wave off the Coast of Kanagawa or Fuji, Mountain in Clear Weather (Red Fuji).

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is widely considered the greatest Japanese ukiyo-e painter of all time.

Although Hokusai's woodblock prints and paintings had a profound impact on Western artists ranging from Claude Monet to Vincent Van Gogh, relatively little is known about the artist who lived up to the age of 90.

'The Great Wave off the Coast of Kanagawa', c1829-1831, from the series 36 Views of Mount Fuji. Source: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

HOKUSAI, directed by Hajime Hashimoto, is the opening film of this year’s Japanese Film Festival. It depicts the life of Hokusai and the many challenges he faced during a career that spanned over 70 years.

Scriptwriter Len Kawahara says the idea of the film came from a five-year-old boy’s innocent comment several years ago.

“I was at a beach in Kanagawa, watching Mount Fuji over the horizon when my friend’s son, who was five at the time, said, 'that’s Hokusai'.”

Kawahara says she was surprised that such a young child could recognise the view as the one portrayed in The Great Wave off the Coast of Kanagawa.

Len Kawahara is the scriptwriter of the film Hokusai Source: Supplied: Japanese Film Festival

At the same time, she realised how little she knew about the artist, whose works are so well known worldwide.

“He was the greatest Japanese artist, yet many Japanese people, including myself, knew very little about his life.”

Kawahara became fascinated with the life of Hokusai, which was not only unconventional but contained many setbacks.

“I feel that his life encompassed messages that can be relevant to modern society.”

Melanie Eastburn, senior curator of Asian Art at Art Gallery of NSW, says although much of Hokusai’s work was made around 200 years ago, “the graphic quality of his work still has an appealing immediacy”.

“He could capture moments of great drama, as in his famous Great Wave off Kanagawa, but also humorous or tender scenes from daily life, as well as gruesome characters from ghost stories.”

Set in the final decades of the Edo period (1603-1868), at a time when popular culture and its artforms were suppressed, the film sees young Hokusai (played by Yūya Yagira) try to establish himself as an artist.

Kawahara says that with so little written about the early life of Hokusai, she tried to piece together the character by creating an accurate timeline, mapping out the significant figures he may have crossed paths with and imagining the kinds of conversation that took place.

“It was like joining the dots and allowing the character of Hokusai to be developed from those who were around him.”

“The film brings a warmth and intimacy to Hokusai’s life that few written biographies have been able to. It is about him as a person, from an observant and wilful young man to an observant and wilful old man, and about his relationships rather than his success as an artist,” says Eastburn.

Kawahara also plays the role of Eijo (Ōi), Hokusai’s daughter.

Although making final adjustments to the script at the same time as playing a role was like “being swept away by the great wave”, she says looking back the experience was “happy and honourable”.

Eastburn says the film gave her a “new appreciation for Hokusai as a complex person”, particularly through the affectionate interaction between Mature Hokusai (played by Min Tanaka) and his daughter Ōi, who was also an artist.

As part of the Japanese Film Festival, Eastburn will provide a post-film talk, which will focus on Hokusai’s ukiyo-e prints, and the Edo context in which the art was made and sold.