Hokusai's work is amazing prima facie. But then when you download the archive.org pdf files (see links in comment from @abetusk) and start to zoom in, the mastery of the strokes just blows your mind. The skill is ridiculous. The stylization, the capturing of the essence of a bird turning its neck by basically the minimum possible strokes while maintaining the feel of dynamism and suspended motion, it is just too much. Nothing makes me more emotional and romantically sentimental of beautiful japan from an era, which in my logical head, I know had lots of hardships and difficult life. He still manages to put that aside by the sheer power of the infusion of tranquillity in his paintings. It makes me long for a time and place which I would never see and probably was a lot harsher than I can see through the mind of his brushstrokes.

Hokusai has long been my favourite artist but I still keep finding more nuances in his work. He lived an 88-year long life dedicated to art. What an unbelievable genius master of a bygone era.