Of the humility of Hokusai around seventy
己六才より物の形状を写の癖ありて半百の此より数々画図を顕すといえども七十年前画く所は実に取るに足ものなし 七十三才にして稍 禽獣虫魚の骨格草木の出生を悟し得たり 故に八十六才にしては益々進み九十才にして猶其 奥意を極め一百歳にして正に神妙ならん与欠 百有十歳にしては一点一格にして生るがごとくならん 願くば長寿の君子予言の妄ならざるを見たまふべし
All I have produced before the age of seventy is not worth taking into account. At seventy-three I have learned a little about the real structure of nature, of animals, plants, trees, birds, fishes and insects. In consequence when I am eighty, I shall have made still more progress. At ninety I shall penetrate the mystery of things; at one hundred I shall certainly have reached a marvelous stage; and when I am a hundred and ten, everything I do, be it a dot or a line, will be alive. I beg those who live as long as I to see if I do not keep my word. Written at the age of seventy five by me, once Hokusai, today Gwakyo Rojin, the old man mad about drawing.