Hokusai’s Death and the Continuing Life of His Work

Hokusai died after illness in 1849. His final decade had increasingly centered on paintings, with subjects drawn from animals, plants, classical stories and religion. Drawing books and technical manuals also remained part of his work, extending the range of an artist often remembered chiefly through his Fuji prints.

Publication continued after his death. Hokusai Manga, begun in 1814, eventually reached fifteen volumes in 1878. The late volumes show publishers and compilers continuing to organize material under his name; they were not new drawings made by a living Hokusai. Printed works could therefore reach readers through an expanding series even after its originating artist was gone.

In 1893, Iijima Hanjūrō published the two-volume Katsushika Hokusai den. This later biography supplied another form of preservation, assembling a life around surviving works and remembered accounts. Its publication date establishes a stage in Hokusai’s reception, without making every retrospective anecdote contemporary evidence. His death ended his own production while leaving publication and biographical interpretation in other hands.