'To mark the beginnining of the 21st century, "LIFE" magazine conducted a special survey entitled "LIFE"s"
100 Most ImportantPeople of the Second Millennium. The only Japanese person to make the final list, at number 86, was Hokusai, of all people. (Incidentally, number one was Thomas Edison).
That Hokusai has come to be internationally recognized inthis way is due none other than to the fact that
"Hokusai manga" (Hokusai's sketches) had such a great influence on the French Impressionist painters and culturati.
The circumstances surrounding how "Hokusai manga" came to the attention of the impresiionist painters are detailed in a famous anecdote concerning the French etcher Félix Bracquemond. According to this story,
Bracquemond came across pages of "Hokusai manga" that had been used as packaging for a consignment of porcelain sent from Japan, and was so impressed that he took great pains to obtain a copy and began promoting it. With that, "Hokusai manga" came to the attention of the likes of Manet, Monet,Degas, and Whistler, who were astonished and impressed by what they saw. In fact, Monet copied "Hokusai manga" and Monet is said to have been so fascinated with it that he came to be known as "Hokusai's true rival".
Interest in Japanese art heightened following the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1867, giving rise to the movement known as Japonisme, a movement whose origins can be traced to "Hokusai manga".
Interest in Hokusai grew and he became familiar to people through art magazine articles, books, and so on.
Of these publications, Edmond de Goncourt's "Hokusai" played amajor part in enhancing Hokusai's reputa-tion. De Goncourt described Hokusai as "one of the most creative artists on earth".

Uragami Mitsuru'.

A phantastic book of a highly gifted human being.