Katsushika Ōi

The recorded working language is Japanese. The field of work recorded is ukiyo-e. Places of work recorded in the authority are Osaka. Work by Katsushika Ōi is recorded in the collections of Cleveland Museum of Art, Ōta Memorial Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Saragossa Museum and Menard Art Museum.

• Name — Katsushika Ōi • Native Name — 葛飾 応為 • Born — c. 1800 (exact date unknown) • Birthplace — Edo (present-day Tokyo), Japan • Died — c. 1866 (exact date unknown) • Father — Hokusai • Field — Ukiyo-e Katsushika

• Illustration — Nightscene in the Yoshiwara (吉原格子先之図) by Katsushika Ōi Ōi's birth and death dates are not known, although it is believed that she was born in 1800 and died around 1866. She was a daughter of the ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). Hokusai married twice; the first marriage produced a son and two daughters, and the second, to a woman named Kotome (ことめ), resulted in a son and one or two daughters. • Illustration — Kinuta or Beauty Fulling Cloth in the Moonlight (19th century Edo period) by Katsushika Ōi Ōi studied her craft under her father's guidance as his apprentice. She also studied under Tsutsumi Torin III (1789–1830) who was a fellow painter and printmaker. This is where she met Minamizawa Tomei (also known as Tsutsumi Tōmei), another one of Tsutsumi Torin III's students, and married him in 1824. Their marriage did not last long, for only three years later they divorced. It is rumored that their marriage ended as a result of Ōi's criticism of Minamizawa Tomei's work, claiming he was a terrible artist, and laughing at him for it. Ōi thereafter went to live with her father again, and assisted Hokusai with his artwork, and took to producing her own as well. In 1828, Kotome, Ōi's mother died, leaving her to care for her now sixty year old father. Neither of them cared about housework or maintaining their home, with all their time occupied by their work, both of them painting and printmaking alongside one another in an unkempt household. Despite her father's fame, Ōi too managed to make a name for herself. In Hokusai's family, his daughters were expected to tend to their father and assist him in his workshop until they were married off and required to tend to their own husbands. While Ōi's sisters, Miyo, Tatsu, and Nao, all suffered this fate, Ōi never remarried, allowing her to move back in and work on her craft. • Illustration — Operating on Guan Yu's Arm Hokusai himself noted his daughters' talent when it came to depicting beautiful women; other artists at the time such as Keisai Eisen regarded her as accomplished, for despite being a woman, Ōi garnered a reputation as a skillful artist after her father.

Ōi is known to have excelled at handwriting and in bijin-ga paintings of beautiful women. The following is a selected list of her works. • Kinuta or Beauty Fulling Cloth in the Moonlight (date unknown) – Painting on paper. Tokyo National Museum collection. • Yoshiwara Night Scene (date unknown) – The parts of her name can be observed in this scene, distributed over three different lanterns tagged with symbols "O", "i", and "Ei". Ukiyo-e Ōta Memorial Museum of Art collection. • Kuruwa in Grid View (date unknown) – Ukiyo-e Ōta Memorial Museum of Art collection. • Beauty of Spring Night (date unknown) – Menard Art Museum collection. • Hundred Eyes (date unknown) – Hokusai Museum collection. • Mount Fuji through a Bamboo Forest (date unknown) – Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. Hokusai Museum collection. • Three Women Playing Musical Instruments (c. 1818–1844, i.e. Bunsei to Tenpō era) – Hanging scroll; ink and color on silk. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, collection. • Operating on Guan Yu's Arm (c. 1818–1854) – Hanging scroll; ink, color and gold leaf on silk. – Cleveland Museum of Art collection. • One Thousand Years of Hyakunin isshu Yamato Longevity (1829) – Pictorial. She has also been credited as an illustrator for the following books. • Illustrated Handbook for Daily Life for Women (1847) – Woodblock printed book. Ravicz Collection. • A Concise Dictionary of Sencha (1848) Aside from drawing and painting, Ōi also made keshi ningyō dolls and sold them to earn a living.