Katsushika Housai's Profile

People across all the global cultures know or have heard about The Great Wave off Kanagawa, they know very little about the artist behind such works. The creator of the globally famous ‘Wave of Kanagawa' is none other than Katsushika Hokusai. He is known to create about thirty thousand pieces of artwork. However, his art career was faced by much friction from the Japanese government during a time when exports and import had been completely blocked (Lane, 1999). Japan had closed its borders; there was no entry nor exit from the country until 1850 when the borders were opened. The opening of borders allowed Europeans to access highly valued Japanese art.