Katsushika Hokusai《Swimming Duck》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm

葛飾北斎《鴨遊泳図》部分　本紙

Katsushika Hokusai

Swimming Duck

鴨遊泳図

Medium: Ink and colors on Japanese paper
Dimensions: 24.1 × 34.0 cm

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Provenance

One leaf from an album of twelve paintings. The album's title slip records that in the Tenpo famine of 1836, when many lay fallen in the roads, Hokusai — then seventy-seven — conceived this album and by it barely kept himself fed.

About This Work

Hokusai of water

A subject Hokusai favoured. As the epithet Hokusai of water suggests, even the most abbreviated brush conveys the duck's lively movement — a small masterpiece in which the least distinction between water and feather carries even the speed of the swimming bird.

More by Katsushika Hokusai

Katsushika Hokusai《Gathering Shellfish at Low Tide》32.5 × 47.9 cm — Gathering Shellfish at Low Tide
潮干狩り図

Katsushika Hokusai《Li Kui, the Black Whirlwind》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Li Kui, the Black Whirlwind
黒遷風李起図

Katsushika Hokusai《Bellflowers》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Bellflowers
桔梗図

Katsushika Hokusai《Ghost》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Ghost
幽霊図

Katsushika Hokusai《Hotei》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Hotei
布袋図

Katsushika Hokusai《Puppy and Roof Tile》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Puppy and Roof Tile
犬と瓦図

Katsushika Hokusai《Confucius》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 34.0 × 24.1 cm — Confucius
孔子図

Katsushika Hokusai《Tea-Whisk Peddler》Ink and colors on Japanese paper 24.1 × 34.0 cm — Tea-Whisk Peddler
茶筅売図

Rat and Daikon Radish All works by Katsushika Hokusai Slice of Salmon

Related reading

Article
26 September 2026
Buying a Hokusai painted by his own hand
Hokusai is known for prints. He also painted directly with the brush — one sheet, one hand, no block between. The gallery currently holds twelve album leaves, five hanging-scroll works in six scrolls, three fan paintings — twenty paintings in all, one of them sold — and three Thirty-six Views reprinted and mounted as scrolls.
Supervised by Yoshihisa Endo, Representative Director, Japan Art Academy

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