The old adage about how behind every great man there’s a great woman was particularly true for Katsushika Hokusai. The celebrated ukiyo-e artist (1760-1849) spent the final decades of his life sharing a home with his daughter, O-Ei, who was a skilled painter herself. Only a handful of her works survive, but they demonstrate a singular style. She also acted as a production assistant to her father and they are thought to have collaborated a number of times.
Once a hidden figure in art history, Katsushika Oi — the pseudonym bequeathed by her dad — is now more widely recognized. Her story has been told in Keiichi Hara’s anime “Miss Hokusai” (2015), based on a manga series by Hinako Sugiura, as well as in a 2018 NHK drama, “Kurara.”
Tatsushi Omori’s “Hokusai’s Daughter” is also adapted in part from Sugiura’s manga, but it takes a grittier approach than Hara’s feature, closer in spirit to Junji Sakamoto’s pungent period drama, “Okiku and the World” (2023). Omori depicts life among the riffraff of 19th-century Edo (now Tokyo) with rough-hewn immediacy, using handheld cameras and minimal lighting. A jaunty, jazz-inflected score by Yoshihide Otomo maintains an off-kilter mood, even if it loses some of its charm through overuse.
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