Page:A history of Japanese colour-prints by Woldemar von Seidlitz.djvu/362

166 sanjiurokkasen, the Thirty-six Poetesses, printed in 1801, for which Hokusai designed the title and Yeishi the other sheets. Here he already uses the name Hokusai, which he is supposed to have taken as a token of his great reverence for the god Hokushin Mioken, and which first occurs in 1790 in the Mitate shushingura; Anderson's Catalogue, however, traces this name back to his "northern studio," as the artist presumably designated his dwelling from its situation. He generally called himseif Katsushika Hokusai, from the precinct of that name, in which he grew up; from 1800 he often signed himself Gwakiojin Hokusai, meaning "Hokusai Dote-on-drawing." After having, about 1820, given up his surname Taito to his son-in-law, Shigenobu (or a pupil by name of Kameya Kisaburo), he often signed himself Iitsu (which read in Japanese is sounded like Tamekazu).

During his activity in the last two decades of the eighteenth century, Hokusai underwent the influence of the most diverse masters. Under the influence of Shunsho he produced, as early as the latter seventies, a succession of actor pictures; then he imitated the warriors of Shunyei and the landscapes of Toyoharu; Shigemasa, too, had some effect upon him. Bing, however, emphasises especially the influence of Kiyonaga, the greatest master of that period; in the style of Kiyonaga he executed a picture of Kintoki embracing a bear while an eagle is perched on his shoulder, as well as a triptych with scenes from the history of the Ronin. His representations of wrestlers date from the beginning of the tenth decade. He early learned from Shiba Gokan the rules of perspective, which he occasionally, but not always, applied; a series of twelve landscapes, 1796, already bear a horizontal signature in the European manner; a contemporaneous set of eight views of Lake Biwa likewise shows European influence. Besides his numerous book-illustrations, he produced, toward the end of the century, four sets of the Stations of the