hokusai's postscript to his "100 Views of Fuji" ...

"From the age of six, I had a passion for copying the form of things and since the age of fifty I have published many drawings, yet of all I drew by my seventieth year there is nothing worth taking into account. At seventy-three years I partly understood the structure of animals, birds, insects and fishes, and the life of grasses and plants. And so, at eighty-six I shall progress further; at ninety I shall even further penetrate their secret meaning, and by one hundred I shall perhaps truly have reached the level of the marvellous and divine. When I am one hundred and ten, each dot, each line will possess a life of its own."

the above colour prints are from his famous "36 Views" first published in 1831 ... 
https://www.hokusai-katsushika.org/36-views-of-mt-fuji-seri36.html

the "100 Views" was a later book of smaller black-and-white prints published in 1834 ...
here are links where you can see the book's three volumes and turn the pages, and zoom them, too ...

https://www.hokusai-katsushika.org/volume-one.html
https://www.hokusai-katsushika.org/volume-two.html
https://www.hokusai-katsushika.org/volume-three.html

a bit of context via the V&A ....
https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/japanese-woodblock-prints-ukiyo-e

more context from christie's, the auctioneers ...
https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/books-manuscripts/hokusai-fugaku-hyakkei-les-cent-6189891-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=6189891&sid=adf65677-02c3-4d5b-a467-a614b6f645a8

dai jin ... one of the few classical chinese painters to have a go at depicting falling rain ... returning home in the wind and rain

in the national palace museum in taipei

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Jin

Robert McGinnis ... book covers, film posters, his artwork was everywhere during my youth, and I never even noticed his name ... of course, as adolescents, we enjoyed growing up in a moral vacuum ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_McGinnis

dragons in chinese art ... a scrapbook, to be consolidated as and when ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_dragon#targetText=The%20dragon%20is%20also%20a,his%20imperial%20strength%20and%20power.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/40454

chen rong's nine dragons

https://beyond-calligraphy.com/2012/03/06/nine-sons-of-the-dragon-king/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chen_Rong_(painter)

short introduction to the role of dragons in chinese culture, probably written for american tourists

https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/article-chinese-dragons.htm

and an introduction to "bixi" ...

https://anotherglobaleater.wordpress.com/2015/05/31/the-zoology-of-dragons/

the nine dragon wall ... 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine-Dragon_Wall

https://cdn.sanity.io/files/f23a1pgq/pma_production/62aeafe629c81130dac6b358ec766a0f6f3d6b18.pdf

A GOLD AND SILVER-INLAID BRONZE 'DRAGON' BRUSH REST Song/Yuan Dynasty Modelled in the form of two coiled archaistic dragons, both depicted with sharp eyes and decorated with gold and silver-inlays along the bodies, the elongated and wavy body moulded to hold brushes, the legs constructed to be the support, box. 15.6cm (6 1/8in) long 

... to be continued ...