The Sumida Hokusai Museum

In a country renowned for its art, Japan’s most recognizable historical work might be Under The Wave Off Kanagawa – or The Great Wave, as its more commonly known. In it, an enormous arc of water topped with white crests of foam frames Mount Fuji, one of the country’s most iconic landmarks. You’ve likely seen reproductions of this image on everything from bedspreads to laptop cases, but do you know the story of the man who painted it? Discover Katsushika Hokusai and his body of work by spending a day wandering through the newly-opened Sumida Hokusai Museum, a four-storey memorial to a Japanese legend.

The Sumida Hokusai Museum

The museum is located in Sumida City, across the Sumida River from tourist hot spot Asakusa. Hokusai was born near Honjo Warigesui (rechristened as Hokusai Street, which runs in front of the museum) in 1760 and remained nearby for many of his 88 years, so it’s a fitting place to memorialize the man and his works. The building itself is rather surprising: Sejima Kazuyo’s hypermodern four-storey structure looks more like something pointing towards the future than recalling the past, but it’s beautiful, nonetheless. Since opening in 2016, the museum has housed a permanent exhibition as well as five temporary exhibitions each year.

The Sumida Hokusai Museum

Hokusai is painted in a style known as “ukiyo-e,” which translates to “pictures of the floating world.” Images produced in this style indulged in the beauty of its subjects, and Hokusai and his contemporaries interpretation of Japanese kabuki performers and gorgeous natural landscapes largely informed the 19th century’s image of Japan – and greatly influenced the western Impressionist movement. Under the Wave Off Kanagawa comes from Hokusai’s most famous series, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, but the prolific artist’s overall oeuvre is said to total more than 30,000 works.

The Sumida Hokusai Museum

It’s not all mountain summits and falling leaves, though. The museum provides a chance to encounter lesser known works like a famous sketchbook rife with subjects both secular and supernatural: routine portraits and well known Buddhist figures mixed in with scads of hellish ghouls. It’s a peek into the psyche of man known not only for his work but his eclecticisms, which included a tendency to (repeatedly) change both his name and address. The Sumida Hokusai Museum’s exhibits focus not only on art but its artist, a combination which helps to paint a rich and memorable image of an eccentric master.

The Sumida Hokusai Museum

Originals and replicas are augmented by life-sized installations of Hokusai and the many studios he used throughout his life. Though none of the art on display can be touched, digital devices allow patrons to flick through Hokusai’s collection at close range and explore his painting techniques, woodblock print process, and fascinating life story – and the dark interior of the museum serves as stark relief to the warm, watery pigments and cream-coloured paper used in much the artist’s work.

The Sumida Hokusai Museum

Of course, there’s a gift shop where you can purchase a wide assortment of goods decorated with the artist’s most famous images or you can nab such themed treats such as candy and rice crackers. Hokusai’s art has become regarded as so quintessentially Japanese that any of these items would make-do as excellent souvenirs for friends and family back home.

Entry is only 400 yen for adults, and the museum is open from 9:30am to 5:30pm, from Tuesday to Sunday. If you’re not one for crowds, you’re best to check it out on a weekday – always popular, museum attendance tends to double on weekends.

The Sumida Hokusai Museum

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Tokyo Sumida-ku Kamezawa 2-7-2

0366588936

9:30-17:30 (Last admission 3…

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