Katsushika Hokusai, creator of 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa,' was incredibly prolific, producing over 30,000 works. He changed his name over 30 times throughout his career, a common practice for artists of the time, but he eventually settled on 'Gakyo Rojin Manji' (The Old Man Mad About Drawing). Hokusai’s work was instrumental in the 'Japonisme' movement in Europe; when his prints were used as wrapping paper for porcelain exported to France, they stunned artists like Monet and Degas. His use of 'Prussian Blue,' a newly available synthetic pigment, gave his woodblock prints a depth and permanence that traditional vegetable dyes lacked. He lived to be 88, and on his deathbed, he reportedly lamented that if he only had five more years, he could have become a 'real painter.'