Hokusai produced his very first print, an actor print in the hosoban format, in 1779 at the age of 19. At the bigining of his carrer, Hokusai concentrated on prints of actors and beautiful women but none of them were very notable. The character of Hokusai can be best described as restless: he changed his name more than twenty times and his place of residence more than ninety times.

This restlessness is also reflected in the variety of his work. Although he was initially a pupil of Shunsho and later Kano Yusen, in his middle-age the artist selfstudied many different styles including Kano, Tosa, Chinese style and Western style. From 1795 to about 1820 he designed numerous surimono (a subcategory of Ukiyo-e), producing same very fine works. Hokusai finally achieved popular success in the 1830s with his publication of "Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji", which was so popular that he later published 10 additional prints making a total set of 46. These additional 10 prints are popularly referred to as "Ura-Fuji" (Fuji viewed from behind).

Hokusai is often described as the artist who brought art of Ukiyo-e landscape prints to perfection and as a painter he is regarded as being among the most important artists of the Edo period. One senses a certain peasant coarseness in his work, but everything he did has a certain dignity, integrity and unmistakable character. Much of his later work was in the fields of painting and book illustration.