Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period, active for over 70 years. His series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (1830–1832), and its most famous print The Great Wave off Kanagawa, had an enormous influence on Western Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists. He claimed he did not produce anything truly satisfying until he was 70, and wrote at 89: 'If I could have just five more years... I should become a real painter.'
