Hokusai is undoubtedly the best-known Japanese painter in the world, espe- cially in Western countries. Some scholars would hesitate to regard him as the greatest master in Japanese art history, yet many studies have worked to justify and consolidate his reputation. Most of this writing, however, fails to note that Hokusai's popularity is a historical product, or to examine the con- texts in which his admirers first felt compelled to champion him as the pre- eminent hero of Japanese art. By questioning the apotheosis of Hokusai in the context of the vogue of "japonisme" in the second half of the nineteenth century in Europe, this paper tries to elucidate some of the underlying social and historical conditions that enabled and prepared the way for his glorifica- tion. How was a simple Japanese ukiyo-e print craftsman transfigured into the ultimate oriental master, comparable to such giants as Michelangelo, Rubens, and Rembrandt, and why was he so much admired by such great figures of modern art as Edouard Manet and Vincent Van Gogh.
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