THE CONNECTION ISN'T immediately apparent: 18th-century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai and the legions of modern-day Japanese gamer geeks known as otaku. But there is one.
Thanks to the popularity of a recent movie, Densha Otoko (Train Man), otaku have become almost cool. Behind this reputation rehabilitation is the notion that otaku, with their autistic-like intensity, can be industrious and useful members of society. Without such introverted focus, it's said, Japan probably would never have achieved its leading role in hi-tech industries.
So here lies the similarity: the same characteristic of obsessive application played its part in Japanese art, nowhere more so than in the career of Hokusai (1760-1849), Japan's greatest ukiyo-e artist, whose works are being showcased with a major exhibition at the Tokyo National Museum.
Why are the 500-odd works going on display now? 'There's no particular reason except that it's ready,' says curator Hiroyoshi Tazawa. 'Because we wanted an overview of the whole of Hokusai, it was inevitable that the exhibition would be a big one.'
The exhibition has taken five years of planning. Works are divided into six main sections or periods, marking radical changes in style and genre during a career that spanned some 70 years.
The Shunro, or Study Works Period, concentrates on early apprentice works, executed under Katsukawa Shunsho (1726-1792), and shows Hokusai's growing confidence and the development of the linear fluidity that became an enduring characteristic of his work.