Editing Hokusai (section)

==Early life==
[[File:Katsushika Hokusai - Courtesan asleep - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''Courtesan Asleep'', a ''[[bijin-ga]]'' [[surimono]] print, {{circa|late 18th to early 19th century}}]]
[[File:Enjoying the Evening Cool Viewing Fireworks at Ryôgoku Bridge by Hokusai 1780.jpg|thumb|''Fireworks in the Cool of Evening at Ryogoku Bridge in Edo'', print, {{circa|1788–89}}]]
Hokusai's date of birth is unclear, but is often stated as the 23rd day of the 9th month of the 10th year of the [[Hōreki]] era (in the [[Japanese calendar|old calendar]], or 31 October 1760) to an [[artisan]] family, in the [[Katsushika Commandery|Katsushika]]<sup>[[:ja:葛飾郡|[ja]]]</sup> district of [[Edo]], the capital of the ruling [[Tokugawa shogunate]] (currently [[Katsushika|Katsushika-ku]], [[Tokyo]]).<ref name="weston116"/> His childhood name was Tokitarō.<ref name="nagata"/> It is believed his father was Nakajima Ise, a [[mirror]]-maker for the [[shōgun]].<ref name="nagata"/> His father never made Hokusai an heir, so it is possible that his mother was a [[concubine]].<ref name="weston116"/> Hokusai began painting around the age of six, perhaps learning from his father, whose work included the painting of designs around mirrors.<ref name="weston116"/>

Hokusai was known by at least thirty names during his lifetime. While the use of multiple names was a common practice of Japanese artists of the time, his number of [[pseudonym]]s exceeds that of any other major Japanese artist. His name changes are so frequent, and so often related to changes in his artistic production and style, that they are used for breaking his life up into periods.<ref name="weston116"/>

At the age of 12, his father sent him to work in a bookshop and [[lending library]], a popular institution in Japanese cities, where reading books made from woodcut blocks was a popular entertainment of the middle and upper classes.<ref name="weston"/> At 14, he worked as an apprentice to a woodcarver, until the age of 18, when he entered the studio of [[Katsukawa Shunshō]]. Shunshō was an artist of ''[[ukiyo-e]]'', a style of woodblock prints and paintings that Hokusai would master, and head of the so-called Katsukawa school.<ref name="nagata"/> ''Ukiyo-e'', as practised by artists like Shunshō, focused on images of the [[courtesan]]s (''[[bijin-ga]]'') and [[kabuki]] actors (''[[yakusha-e]]'') who were popular in Japan's cities at the time.<ref name="weston117"/>

After a year, Hokusai's name changed for the first time, when he was dubbed Shunrō by his master. It was under this name that he published his first prints, a series of pictures of kabuki actors published in 1779. During the decade he worked in Shunshō's studio, Hokusai was married to his first wife, about whom very little is known except that she died in the early 1790s. He married again in 1797, although this second wife also died after a short time. He fathered two sons and three daughters with these two wives, and his youngest daughter Ei, also known as [[Katsushika Ōi|Ōi]], eventually became an artist and his assistant.<ref name="weston117"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://ci.nii.ac.jp/author/DA10315358?l=en|title=葛飾, 応為 カツシカ, オウイ|language=ja|publisher=[[CiNii]]|access-date=22 May 2017}}</ref> ''Fireworks in the Cool of Evening at Ryogoku Bridge in Edo'' ({{circa|1788–89}}) dates from this period of Hokusai's life.<ref>Calza (2003), p. 426</ref>

Upon the death of Shunshō in 1793, Hokusai began exploring other styles of art, including European styles he was exposed to through French and Dutch copper engravings he was able to acquire.<ref name="weston117"/> He was soon expelled from the Katsukawa school by Shunkō, the chief disciple of Shunshō, possibly due to his studies at the rival [[Kanō school]]. This event was, in his own words, inspirational: "What really motivated the development of my artistic style was the embarrassment I suffered at Shunkō's hands".<ref name="lane"/>

Hokusai also changed the subjects of his works, moving away from the images of courtesans and actors that were the traditional subjects of ''ukiyo-e''. Instead, his work became focused on landscapes and images of the daily life of Japanese people from a variety of social levels. This change of subject was a breakthrough in ''ukiyo-e'' and in Hokusai's career.<ref name="weston117"/>