Hokusai's 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō 1804 horizontal is something completely different from his first square edition 1801 and second edition 1802.
Hokusai completely changes his style compared to the three previous series, 1801, 1802 and 1804 vertical.
These designs are "clean" and a precursor for his famous 36 Views of Mt Fuji some 30 years later.
In this series Hokusai focus on wonderful folkloric scenes of ordinary people going about their work, in addition to the travel scenes.
Hokusai further develop the themes, touristic curiosities and landscapes that were to become a standard for later generations of Tōkaidō series.
It was a great and beloved contribution to the Tōkaidō literature, which Hokusai dominated for some 30 years and this series is also much loved in the West.
Katsushika Hokusai (c. October 31, 1760 - May 10, 1849) was a Japanese artist, painter and printmaker in Edo (Tokyo) period 1760-1849.
Hokusai established landscape as a new print genre in Japan.
At a young age, Hokusai was adopted by an uncle who held the prestigious position of mirror polisher in the household of the shogun, the commander-in-chief of feudal Japan. It was assumed that the young Hokusai would succeed him in the family business, and he likely received an excellent education in preparation for a job that would place him in direct contact with the upper class. In 19th-century Japan, learning to write also meant learning to draw, since the skills and materials required for either activity were almost identical.
When Hokusai's formal education began at age six, he displayed an early artistic talent that would lead him down a new path. He began to separate himself from his uncle's trade in his early teens-perhaps because of a personal argument, or perhaps because he believed polishable metal mirrors would soon be replaced by the silvered glass mirrors being imported by the Dutch-and worked first as a clerk at a lending library and then later as a woodblock carver. At age 19, Hokusai joined the studio of ukiyo-e artist Katsukawa Shunshō and embarked on what would become a seven-decade-long career in art.
