Japanese artists, as they age, often benefit from the "Hokusai Effect." This is the notion, based on a famous quote from the great ukiyo-e (genre painting) artist, that they only attain real greatness well beyond the normal retirement age for other professions.

"Nothing I did before the age of 70 was worthy of attention," the quote runs, ending with the ambition that, "at 100 and 30, 40 or more I will have reached the stage where every dot and every stroke I paint will be alive."

The sad truth, however, is that most artists achieve their best work well short of their 140th birthday — their later work is often characterized by a loss of energy and inventiveness and a lazy reliance on the successful formulas of the past.