Plot

The life and works of Japanese artist and ukiyo-e painter Katsushika Hokusai, as seen from the eyes of his daughter, Katsushika O-Ei.

Set in 1814, Miss Hokusai focuses on O-Ei, the daughter of famed artist Tetsuzo, better known by his pen name Hokusai, as she tries to navigate the various aspects of her life. O-Ei spends the bulk of her time assisting her divorced father who cares about his art and not much else.—Jake Duke

During the Edo period, in the summer of 1814 in Edo, O-Ei, the masterful painter, daughter and eager apprentice of the legendary Japanese artist and ukiyo-e painter Tetsuzo, who later became Hokusai, is quickly reaching adulthood. Already a famous master woodblock painter himself, Tetsuzo's tempestuous relationship with his daughter O-Ei forces her to live in his shadow, even though she shares the same talent and passion with her divorced father, who as her mentor, he seems to be lost in his art, indifferent to the world and his blind young daughter O-Nao. In the end, from lifelike dragons to the erotic shunga depictions, O-Ei's work was always unsigned and credited to her father, and until the death of Hokusai, she never received any recognition.—Nick Riganas