Katsushika Ōi

Katsushika Ōi (葛飾 応為)
Katsushika Ōi in the middle of the 1840s.
Born	c. 1800 (exact date unknown) Edo (present-day Tokyo), Japan
Died	c. 1866 (exact date unknown)
Nationality	Japanese
Known for	Ukiyo-e

Katsushika Ōi (葛飾 応為, c. 1800 – c. 1866), also known as Ei(栄), was a Japanese Ukiyo-e artist of the late 19th century Edo period. Her mother was the second wife of Hokusai. Not only did Ōi work as a production assistant to her father, but she was also an accomplished painter in her own right. There are multiple theories as to the origin of her name, including Ei (her given name), Ei-jo ("jo" meaning "woman" or "daughter" in Japanese), O-i ("loyal to itsu"), and O-Ei (お栄, with O as an honorary prefix for women's names in Edo Japan).

Ōi's birth and death dates are not known. She was a daughter of the ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760—1849). Hokusai was married twice; the first marriage produced a son and two daughters, and the second, to a woman named Koto (こと), resulted in a son and one or two daughters. It is said that Ōi was born in Hokusai's 37th year:Kansei 12 (c. 1800).

Ōi married the artist Minamisawa Tōmei in c. 1824. They did not get along, and she found him a comically poor artist. They divorced about 1827; she returned to her father's home and never remarried. Ōi thereafter assisted Hokusai in his artwork and took to producing her own. Of her bijin-ga portraits of beauties Hokusai is said to have told people, "The bijin-ga I paint myself are no match for Oei's." Ōi's mother died in c. 1828. Ōi's whereabouts and status become unknown within a few years of her father's death in 1849.

Of the testimony that remains about Ōi, Tsuyuki Iitsu, a pupil of Hokusai's in the master's later years, described her as having an eccentric personality like her father and a charitable disposition—she had ambitions to become a female xian sage.

Ōi is known to have excelled at handwriting and in bijin-ga paintings of beautiful women. The following is a selected list of her works.