Katsushika Hokusai was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist. He is considered to be one of the greatest ukiyo-e artists of all time and is best known for his painting, "Under the Wave off Kanazawa" which is more commonly known as "The Great Wave".
Hokusai was born to an artisan family in the year 1760. His father was believed to be a mirror maker for the shoguns while his mother may have been a concubine. It is believed that Hokusai learned how to draw and create designs due to his father's occupation. At the age of fourteen, Hokusai became an apprentice to a woodcarver. Four years later, at the age of eighteen, Hokusai was accepted into the studio of Katsukawa Shunto who was an ukiyo-e artist. During his life, Hokusai married twice and had two sons and three daughters. His younger daughter, Oyei, also became an ukiyo-e artist.
When Hokusai began to publish his works, be used over thirty different names. His first few works were of kabuki actors and was published under the name Shunro. Hokusai's early works were primarily of kabuki actors and courtesans, however, he gradually changed to pictures of scenery, landscapes, everyday life, and different social classes.