Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige review – how two Japanese masters reinvented art

Whitworth, Manchester Hokusai’s breathtaking woodblock print may be ubiquitous today but, as this startling show reminds us, it’s also an apocalyptic vision of a world about to change The printed images made in Japan between the 17th and 20th centuries, known collectively as “pictures of the floating world”, could be bought from a local bookshop for about the price of a bowl of noodles. Collected casually, like posters or magazines, these mass-produced media started out as sexy, charming and dazzling snapshots of Tokyo high-life for the vicarious enjoyment of those who could not afford it.…