Thursday 20 February, 2025
6:00pm GMT - 7:00pm GMT
Online lecture via Zoom.
50 min lecture followed by Q&A.
Free and open to all, booking essential.
To check your time zone conversion if you are joining from outside the UK, click here.
If you have limited access to the internet but would still like to view the lecture, please email sisjac@sainsbury-institute.org or call us on +44 (0) 1603 597507 to book to attend our livestream from 64 The Close.
Speaker
Dr Ellis Tinios (Visiting Researcher, Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University)
About the Talk
Katsushika Hokusai (1769–1849) is praised for the inventiveness and variety of his work. Less attention has been given to his visual sources. In this lecture I will cast light on the ways Hokusai borrowed from fellow artists. My focus will be on the book illustrations he produced in the last half of his long and astonishingly productive career. I call him an alchemist, a wizard who could turn lead into gold, because of his ability to take inspiration from other artists’ very ordinary designs to create fresh and dynamic images.
About the Speaker
Dr Ellis Tinios taught East Asian history at the University of Leeds. Since taking early retirement from Leeds he has pursued an second career as an independent scholar. He has had the privilege to collaborate with colleagues at the British Museum, Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Cambridge University, and the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. In retirement, he also taught week-long courses on aspects of the book in early modern Japan for the Rare Book School in the United States. One of those courses was devoted entirely to Hokusai’s books. His publications include Japanese Prints: Ukiyo-e in Edo, 1700-1900 (British Museum Press).
Image: Left. From Kawamura Minsetsu’s Hyaku fuji (One hundred Fuji), published in 1771. Right. From Katsushika Hokusai Fugaku hyakkei (One hundred views of Fuji’s peal) vol. 1, published in 1834. Both from the Ebi Collection. Images courtesy of the Art Reearch Center, Ritsumeikan University.
The Third Thursday Lecture series is funded by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and Yakult UK.