Hokusai

About Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) was a seminal Japanese ukiyo-e artist whose career spanned the late Edo period. His enduring global influence, which secures him an HPI Rank of #462, stems largely from his mastery of woodblock printing, especially his series *Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji*. This collection includes *The Great Wave off Kanagawa*, one of the most recognizable pieces of Japanese art in the world, profoundly impacting subsequent Western artists with its innovative compositions and perspective.

Despite this significant historical standing, Hokusai's contemporary internet attention suggests a notable gap. He garnered approximately 440K annualized Wikipedia views in 2025. For comparison, modern artist Andy Warhol, who ranks significantly lower at #701 in historical importance, commanded five times that figure with 2.0M views. Hokusai’s attention is relatively proportional to his importance (an Attention Gap of ~1x), yet he receives substantially less traffic than many modern figures with comparable historical weight, such as Henry Ford (#811 importance, 1.6M views).

This relatively low level of attention, coupled with a -6.7% year-over-year view decline and an -11% drop in Q1 to Q3 momentum, indicates that one of history's most influential visual artists is currently experiencing waning, or at best, modest, engagement on the modern web, especially when stacked against his canonical status.