"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
