ROME.- Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome hosts an exhibition of exceptional importance: the largest exhibition ever held in Italy dedicated to Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), the most famous Japanese artist and one of the most powerful and influential figures in global visual culture.

Hokusai is the leading figure of the artistic season of the Edo period (1603–1868), an extraordinary era in which the culture of the “Floating World,” Ukiyo-e, flourished – destined to profoundly transform the Japanese imagination and, later, the Western one.

A prolific painter and printmaker, visionary and tireless, Hokusai is known worldwide above all for his celebrated Ukiyo-e prints, in which nature, the movement of water, landscapes, human figures, and everyday life in Japan are transformed into images of striking poetic power and modernity.

Visitors will journey through timeless masterpieces and extraordinary visual inventions: from the Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō to the iconic Great Wave off Kanagawa, from the Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji to the remarkable Manga, the extraordinary sketchbooks that introduced one of the most well-known terms in contemporary visual culture.

More than 200 works are on display, drawn from the prestigious collection of the National Museum in Krakow – well known in Japan – which is exceptionally lending its works to Italy for the first time and, for the first time in the world, is presenting at Palazzo Bonaparte the first major monographic exhibition on Hokusai outside Poland.

The exhibition also offers a fascinating interpretive key to the master’s work: at the center of his images there is not only monumental nature, but the human being. Among views of Japan and the constant presence of the sacred Mount Fuji, Hokusai observes life with extraordinary sensitivity. Fuji often

recedes into the background, while in the foreground gestures and details of everyday life emerge: a hut built by human hands, the back of a horse along the road, the outline of a roof echoing that of a hill.

Alongside the centrality of the human figure, another great protagonist of Hokusai’s work emerges: water. Not only in the famous Great Wave, presented here in one of its earliest impressions, but in the infinite variations through which the artist observes, studies, and reinvents it.

Water rushes powerfully in the series A Tour of the Waterfalls of the Various Provinces (Shokoku taki meguri), shatters into whirlpools and sprays, stretches into silent surfaces, or becomes pure visual energy. In every image, movement arises from an extraordinary precision of line, capable of transforming nature into rhythm and harmony.

The exhibition also highlights lesser-known yet irresistible aspects of Hokusai’s personality, such as his humor and lightness. Emblematic in this sense is the refined surimono print Self-Portrait as a Fisherman, in which the artist playfully engages with his own image with irony and freedom.

With the same humor, he summed up his artistic quest, leaving us a testament to his boundless curiosity: “… Everything I drew before the age of seventy is not worth considering… At ninety I will have penetrated the mystery of nature. At one hundred I will be a marvelous artist. At one hundred and ten, everything I create – a dot, a line – will come to life as never before. To all of you who will live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word”.

This was not merely a provocation. These words vividly express his extraordinary conception of himself and of art: an endless journey of study, observation, and refinement, in which the artist never stops learning. Indeed, it was precisely after the age of seventy that he created some of his most celebrated masterpieces, including his most iconic image: The Great Wave off Kanagawa.

In his later years, he often signed his works “Gakyō rōjin,” meaning “The Old Man Mad About Painting,” a name that perfectly captures the inexhaustible energy with which he continued to observe the world and reinvent it through drawing.

Alongside Hokusai’s masterpieces, the exhibition also presents a collection of over 180 items, including rare books and precious Japanese objects such as lacquerware, cloisonné enamels, travel accessories, armor, helmets and swords, as well as traditional musical instruments. Garments (kimono, haori jackets, and obi sashes) visually accompany the visit, creating an ongoing dialogue between art, everyday life, and the spirituality of Japanese culture.

The rooms of Palazzo Bonaparte, immersed in the timeless charm of Japan, will convey the full innovative power of an artist who profoundly influenced the Western imagination. His works captivated and inspired painters such as Monet, Van Gogh, and the Impressionist movement, contributing to the emergence of new visions of modernity, and also left their mark on musicians like Claude Debussy.

The exhibition is further enriched by a different perspective on 19th-century Japan through the photographs of Felice Beato, an Italian traveling photographer among the first to document the country after its opening to the West. His images, presented in a video recounting his life and artistic work, portray landscapes, cities, and scenes of everyday life that engage in an ideal dialogue with the visual universe of the Japanese master.

Finally, an educational pathway running through the galleries will allow visitors to explore the complex yet fascinating world of the technical and artistic processes behind the creation of Hokusai’s works and those of his pupils.

Hokusai has been – and continues to be – a bridge between East and West, the artist who more than any other made possible a deep and enduring dialogue between two artistic traditions that still meet and enrich each other today. It is no coincidence that Hokusai was chosen to represent the most significant cultural event marking the 160th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Italy and Japan.