"I have been in love with painting ever since I became conscious of it at the age of six.

I drew some pictures I thought were fairly good when I was fifty,

But really nothing I did before the age of seventy was of any value at all.

At seventy-three I have at last caught every aspect of nature -

birds, fish, animals, insects, grass - all.

When I am eighty I shall have developed further,

and I will really master the secrets of art at ninety.

When I reach a hundred my work will be truly sublime,

and my final goal will be attained around the age of a hundred and ten when

every line and dot I draw will be imbued with life.

Even as a ghost my spirit will want to roam - the fields of summer."

 

- Katsushika Hokusai   1760 - 1849