One of Hokusai's last works was Tiger in the Snow:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Hokusai%...

Hokusai didn't actually paint or carve most of his work; in fact he didn't even necessarily complete any of it himself. He would sketch it and an apprentice or other worker would fill in the details. Standard practice at the time

traditional ukiyo-e had a strong division of labor between the stages of production until the shin-hanga movement, and lots of western painters also had workshops of apprentices, I do think it gets popularly glossed over a lot

still happens with modern artists like damien hirst

Really common practice for a lot of artists - iirc, people like Vermeer to Michelangelo to some Impressionists did it as well.

He was an obsessive sketcher. Hokusai's Manga, a compendium of his sketches over a lifetime offer an anthropologically comprehensive observation of pre-modern Japanese life. You would be hard pressed to find as comprehensive an observation of any culture within a single body of work.

Seems similar to modern day comic pencillers and inkers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inker

Not too different from Damien Hurst, then

Hokusai drew the original tentacle porn: dream of the fisherman's wife.

For those interested in a print: http://theoctopusprint.com/

Hahaha this. I remember watching a video where an art critic tries to explain this work without saying "it's early erotica". Was it sister Wendy Beckett? Drawing a blank, this was in middle school art history class.

Off topic: anyone know of a good place to order high-quality prints of work like these?

Mokuhankan produces traditional ukiyo-e prints from their Asakusa shop. They have done a new production of "The Great Wave off Kanagawa" Hokusai's preeminent work, but the print runs are limited so get in line.