Editing Hokusai (section)

==Later life==
[[File:Portrait of Katsushika Hokusai by disciple Keisai Eisen.png|thumb|Portrait of Hokusai by disciple Keisai Eisen]]
The next period, beginning in 1834, saw Hokusai working under the name "Gakyō Rōjin Manji" ({{lang|ja|画狂老人卍}}; "The Old Man Mad About Art").<ref name="gvjh.org"/> It was at this time that he produced ''[[One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji]]'', another significant series,<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.mfa.org/collections/object/fugaku-hyakkei-one-hundred-views-of-mount-fuji-334906 |title=Fugaku hyakkei (One Hundred Views of Mount Fuji) |date=2018-12-21 |website=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |language=en |access-date=2019-01-22 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> generally considered "the masterpiece among his landscape picture books".<ref name="lane"/>

In the [[colophon (publishing)|colophon]] to this work, Hokusai writes:

{{blockquote|From the age of six, I had a passion for copying the form of things and since the age of fifty I have published many drawings, yet of all I drew by my seventieth year there is nothing worth taking into account. At seventy-three years I partly understood the structure of animals, birds, insects and fishes, and the life of grasses and plants. And so, at eighty-six I shall progress further; at ninety I shall even further penetrate their secret meaning, and by one hundred I shall perhaps truly have reached the level of the marvellous and divine. When I am one hundred and ten, each dot, each line will possess a life of its own.<ref>Calza, Gian Carlo. "Hokusau: A Universe" in ''Hokusai'', p. 7.  Phaidon</ref>}}

''A True Mirror of Chinese and Japanese Poetry'' (''Shika shashin kyo''), produced in about 1833 to 1834, was printed in extra-long vertical formats resembling the form of Chinese hand scrolls. Prints in this series include poems by Chinese and Japanese poets combined with scenes in those countries, and scenes from [[Noh]] plays (a form of dance theater predating [[kabuki]]). Ten designs in this series survive.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Sarah E. |title=Hokusai's landscapes: the complete series |date=2019 |publisher=MFA publications Museum of fine arts |isbn=978-0-87846-866-9 |edition=First |location=Boston |pages=151–165 |language=English}}</ref>

Hokusai's final print series, produced around 1835 to 1836, was called ''One Hundred Poems Explained by a Nurse (Hyakunin isshu tuba ga etoki).'' The series was never published in full, perhaps due to financial hardships faced by Hokusai's publishers during Japan's economic downturn in the mid-1830's.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Sarah E. |title=Hokusai's landscapes: the complete series |date=2019 |publisher=MFA publications Museum of fine arts |isbn=978-0-87846-866-9 |edition=First |location=Boston |pages=167}}</ref> These prints featured scenes with the poems inscribed in a square. Each print also contains the series title listed in its own vertical rectangle.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Sarah E. |title=Hokusai's landscapes: the complete series |date=2019 |publisher=MFA publications Museum of fine arts |isbn=978-0-87846-866-9 |edition=First |location=Boston |pages=167–203 |language=English}}</ref>

In 1839, a fire destroyed Hokusai's studio and much of his work. By this time, his career was beginning to fade as younger artists such as [[Andō Hiroshige]] became increasingly popular. At the age of 83, Hokusai traveled to [[Obuse, Nagano|Obuse]] in [[Shinano Province]] (now [[Nagano Prefecture]]) at the invitation of a wealthy farmer, Takai Kozan, where he stayed for several years.<ref name="Hokusai Museum">{{cite web |title=Welcome to the World of Hokusai, an "Old Man Mad About Painting"! |url=https://hokusai-kan.com/en/ |website=Hokusai Kan |date=7 March 2018 |publisher=Hokusai Museum |access-date=16 May 2019}}</ref> During his time in Obuse, he created several masterpieces, including the ''Masculine Wave'' and the ''Feminine Wave''.<ref name="Hokusai Museum" /> Between 1842 and 1843, in what he described as "daily exorcisms" (''nisshin joma''), Hokusai painted Chinese lions (''[[Chinese guardian lions|shishi]]'') every morning in ink on paper as a [[talisman]] against misfortune.<ref>{{cite book|title=Visual Genesis of Japanese National Identity: Hokusai's Hyakunin Isshu|first=Ewa|last=Machotka|publisher=Peter Lang|year=2009|isbn=978-90-5201-482-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2VZDzGQlPd8C&pg=PA214}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/16023/lot/252/|title=Fine Japanese Art, lot 252|publisher=Bonhams|year=2008|access-date=5 November 2020}}</ref> Hokusai continued working almost until the end, painting ''The Dragon of Smoke Escaping from Mt Fuji''<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.katsushikahokusai.com/The-Dragon-of-Smoke-Escaping-from-Mount-Fuji.jsp|website=KatsushikaHokusai.com|title=The Dragon of Smoke Escaping From Mount Fuji, 1849 by Hokusai|access-date=2 November 2020|archive-date=31 December 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121231190129/https://www.katsushikahokusai.com/The-Dragon-of-Smoke-Escaping-from-Mount-Fuji.jsp|url-status=dead}}</ref> and ''[[Tiger in the Snow]]'' in early 1849.<ref name="Tsuji Nobou in Calza 2003, p. 72">Tsuji Nobou in Calza (2003), p. 72</ref>

Constantly seeking to produce better work, he apparently exclaimed on his deathbed, "If only Heaven will give me just another ten years&nbsp;... Just another five more years, then I could become a real painter". He died on 10 May 1849<ref>(18th day of the 4th month of the 2nd year of the [[Kaei|Kaei era]] by the old calendar)</ref> and was buried at the [[Seikyō-ji]] in Tokyo (Taito Ward).<ref name="nagata" /> A [[haiku]] he composed shortly before his death reads: "Though as a ghost, I shall lightly tread, the summer fields".<ref name="Tsuji Nobou in Calza 2003, p. 72" />