Hokusai And Obuse: Hokusai's Last Years In The Small Town

I finally got to visit the Hokusai museum in Japan!

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...until the age of 70, nothing I drew was worthy of notice. At 73 years I was somewhat able to fathom the growth of plants and trees, and the structure of birds, animals, insects and fish. Thus when I reach 80 years, I hope to have made increasing progress, and at 90 to see further into the underlying principles of things, so that at 100 years I will have achieved a divine state in my art, and at 110, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive. Those of you who live long enough, bear witness that these words of mine are not false.

_{ー Hokusai, in his postscript of One Hundred Views of Mt Fuji illustration}

Are you familiar with the Great Wave Off Kanagawa? It's probably the most famous work of the artist and there's even a lot of renditions of it. It's one of my favorite paintings by this Japanese artist named Hokusai.

Katsushika Hokusai was poor but he loved painting, and at the age of 70+, he became known for his works. I interpret this as Hard (or smart) work knows no age.

At around 80 years old, through an introduction of a friend, Hokusai met Takai Kozan, a young and wealthy farmer-merchant man from Obuse, a small town in Nagano. The two formed a deep bond and later on, Kozan invited Hokusai to his home in Obuse, where he could freely paint and paint in his later years. Hokusai traveled 240 km by foot from Tokyo (Edo during that time) to Obuse. Imagine traveling by foot?! And at that very old age?! I just simply cannot fathom, Hokusai's determination's just amazing!

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This was what I learned from one of the videos shown in the small theatre in Hokusai Museum. Of course, this museum is located in Obuse, around 30-min train ride from Nagano station. The museum is only a short walk from the Obuse train station, as I've narrated in this post.

Hokusai's works are displayed in this museum. I think these works were when he stayed in Obuse on his visits. It's such a privilege to be able to witness his works close up! I feel so lucky!

Strange Ukiyo-e

These random works of Hokusai in manga form were displayed in the first hall. In the Edo period, it's said that common people love ghost stories and legends. So Hokusai made lots of illustrations that are creepy in different ways.

Stories of revengeful spirits were fun to read while looking at these artworks.

After the death of Osawa, Ihei, her husband, married Ohana, the 3rd party woman. Osawa appeared in a vengeful spirit form one night and in this drawing, Ihei used his sword to attack Osawa but it passed through her (she's in spirit form). Ohana couldn't see the spirit so she thought Ihei had gone mad and tried to stop him.

_{source: from the description displayed on the museum}

Osawa, who's now a vengeful spirit attacks Ihei, her husband. She took her own life after being tricked by her husband who's having an affair with another woman. This left Osawa in despair. In this illustration, Osawa's anger is seen looking like flames of attacking rodents.

_{source: from the description displayed on the museum}

More Drawings

The illustrations are in a notebook-like so I'm not sure if this was the original. If it is, then they really preserved it well! It's also fun to read the description on the side - the story behind them.

I almost skipped this dance dance off illustration. @appleeatingapple called my attention because it was so funny. She even tried the moves. Do you think it's a good dance?

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What's Your Number One Battle?

There was an event going on in the museum at the time we visited, with the question What's your number one "Battle"?. Many have interesting answers including "work", "sleep", "my life", "love", and even "girlfriend". There's even one saying "to tell the world I'm gay".

I learned it's not just you or me, but lots of people are battling every single day. I participated and answered my number one battle, which you could probably guess what it is.

How about you? If you answer this question, what would be your number one battle?

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The Great Wave Off Kanagawa

My favorite artwork of Hokusai: The Great Wave Off Kanagawa or 神奈川沖浪裏 is also seen here. This is probably his best known work. He actually drew a lot of illustrations of Mount Fuji and this was the first in the series.

Modern Day And More

Some of his works were references by other modern artists. They made different objects out of his works and of course, it's not cheap to get them. I honestly wanted to buy one but the price isn't something I could afford. To incorporate art into everyday pieces is just really something I like to collect (I haven't started yet though! LOL).

Hokusai's famous arts are displayed big.

These scrolls - so Japanized! I want one for my house. 😅

And it's even in digital format now. Art is becoming modern, but I think it's also good. It's hard to keep the original ones because of the need to limit deterioration. Look at this modern scroll, it's shaped like one but it's actually a screen - yes, this is the digital form. Hokusai's famous works are being played here.

Festival Float Designs

While everything is fascinating in the museum, the thing that really made me in awe was the art he made in the 2 festival floats that's displayed inside. They're the Higashimachi Festival Float and the Kanmachi Festival Float.

Higashimachi Festival Float

According to the records, this festival float was rebuilt in 1805 and has the longest history among the seven festival floats currently present in Obuse.
The float was constructed based on the request of Kozan Takai, who received the wish of Obuse villagers at that time, and a part of its ceiling was remodeled to contain paintings of a dragon and a phoenix.

_{source: museum official website}

Kanmachi Festival Float

This festival float was created by Kozan with his own money, and the decorative stage features wood carvings of two characters that appear in the novel “Water Margin”, General Gongsun Sheng, a military advisor of the Song Dynasty in China, and a dragon.

_{source: museum official website}

Both festival floats are designated as Nagano Prefecture's official treasure. It's such an honor to be able to see these here. I can't imagine how these were used way back then, being paraded on the streets? Many people must have been blessed to see these.

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There's actually another one big art made by Hokusai but it's not in this museum. It's located on a temple in Obuse. If we had just more time, we would have gone there but walking there would take us around 30 minutes as per the ladies in the tourism center. Probably something to look forward to the next time we're in Nagano.

If you're into art, I suggest you give Hokusai Museum a visit. It's located in Obuse, a few minutes walk from the train station. The entrance fee's 1,000 yen (around 6.5 USD). No need to worry if you don't understand Japanese, this museum has a lot of English translation so you could relate and appreciate Hokusai's works.

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Thanks for reading!
See you around! じゃあ、またね！

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With love,

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If you like to read more about my adventures in Obuse, here's for you!

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^{All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.}