1898); Hohenzollernsche Forschungen, Jahrbuch für die Geschichte der
Hohenzollern, edited by C. Meyer (Berlin, 1891–1902); Hohenzollern
Jahrbuch, Forschungen und Abbildungen zur Geschichte der Hohenzollern
in Brandenburg-Freussen, edited by Seidel (Leipzig, 1897–1903),
and T. Carlyle, History of Frederick the Great (London, 1872–1873).
(A. W. H.*)
HOKKAIDO, the Japanese name for the northern division
of the empire (Hoku＝north, kai＝sea, and do＝road), including
Yezo, the Kuriles and their adjacent islets.
HOKUSAI (1760–1849), the greatest of all the Japanese painters of the Popular School (Ukiyo-ye), was born at Yedo (Tōkyō) in the 9th month of the 10th year of the period Horeki, i.e. October-November 1760. He came of an artisan family, his father having been a mirror-maker, Nakajima Issai. After
some practice as a wood-engraver he, at the age of eighteen,
entered the studio of Katsugawa Shunshō, a painter and
designer of colour-prints of considerable importance. His disregard
for the artistic principles of his master caused his expulsion
in 1785; and thereafter—although from time to time
Hokusai studied various styles, including especially that of
Shiba Gokan, from whom he gained some fragmentary knowledge
of European methods—he kept his personal independence.
For a time he lived in extreme poverty, and, although he must
have gained sums for his work which might have secured him
comfort, he remained poor, and to the end of his life proudly
described himself as a peasant. He illustrated large numbers
of books, of which the world-famous Mangwa, a pictorial encyclopaedia of Japanese life, appeared in fifteen volumes from
1812 to 1875. Of his colour-prints the “Thirty-six Views of
Mount Fuji” (the whole set consisting of forty-six prints) were
made between 1823 and 1829; “Views of Famous Bridges”
(11), “Waterfalls” (8), and “Views of the Lu-chu Islands”
(8), are the best known of those issued in series; but Hokusai
also designed some superb broadsheets published separately,
and his surimono (small prints made for special occasions and
ceremonies) are unequalled for delicacy and beauty. The
“Hundred Views of Mount Fuji” (1834–1835), 3 vols., in
monochrome, are of extraordinary originality and variety.
As a painter and draughtsman Hokusai is not held by Japanese
critics to be of the first rank, but this verdict has never been
accepted by Europeans, who place him among the greatest
artists of the world. He possessed great powers of observation
and characterization, a singular technical skill, an unfailing
gift of good humour, and untiring industry. He was an eager
student to the end of his long life, and on his death-bed said,
“If Heaven had lent me but five years more, I should have
become a great painter.” He died on the 10th of May 1849.
See E. de Goncourt, Hokousaï (1896); M. Revon, Étude sur Hokusaï (1896); E. F. Fenollosa, Catalogue of the Exhibition of Paintings by Hokusai at Tōkyō; (1901); E. F. Strange, Hokusai (1906). (E. F. S.)
HOLBACH, PAUL HEINRICH DIETRICH, Baron d’ (1723–1789), French philosopher and man of letters, of German origin, was born at Heidelsheim in the palatinate in 1723. Of his family little is known; according to J. J. Rousseau his father was a rich parvenu, who brought his son at an early age to Paris, where the latter spent most of his life. Much of Holbach’s fame is due to his intimate connexion with the brilliant coterie of bold thinkers and polished wits whose creed, the new philosophy,
is concentrated in the famous Encyclopédie. Possessed of easy means and being of hospitable disposition, he kept open house for Helvétius, D’Alembert, Diderot, Condillac, Turgot, Buffon, Grimm, Hume, Garrick, Wilkes, Sterne, and for a time J. J. Rousseau, guests who, while enjoying the intellectual pleasure of their host’s conversation, were not insensible to his excellent cuisine and costly wines. For the Encyclopédie he compiled
and translated a large number of articles on chemistry and
mineralogy, chiefly from German sources. He attracted more
attention, however, in the department of philosophy. In 1767
Christianisme dévoilé appeared, in which he attacked Christianity
and religion as the source of all human evils. This was followed
up by other works, and in 1770 by a still more open attack in
his most famous book, Le Système de la nature, in which it
is probable he was assisted by Diderot. Denying the existence
of a deity, and refusing to admit as evidence all a priori arguments,
Holbach saw in the universe nothing save matter in spontaneous
movement. What men call their souls become extinct when
the body dies. Happiness is the end of mankind. “It would
be useless and almost unjust to insist upon a man’s being virtuous
if he cannot be so without being unhappy. So long as vice
renders him happy, he should love vice.” The restraints of
religion were to be replaced by an education developing an
enlightened self-interest. The study of science was to bring
human desires into line with their natural surroundings. Not
less direct and trenchant are his attacks on political government,
which, interpreted by the light of after events, sound like the
first distant mutterings of revolution. Holbach exposed the
logical consequences of the theories of the Encyclopaedists.
Voltaire hastily seized his pen to refute the philosophy of the
Système in the article “Dieu” in his Dictionnaire philosophique,
while Frederick the Great also drew up an answer to it. Though
vigorous in thought and in some passages clear and eloquent,
the style of the Système is diffuse and declamatory, and asserts
rather than proves its statements. Its principles are summed
up in a more popular form in Bon Sens, ou idées naturelles
opposées aux idées surnaturelles (Amsterdam, 1772). In the
Système social (1773), the Politique naturelle (1773–1774) and
the Morale universelle (1776) Holbach attempts to rear a system of morality in place of the one he had so fiercely attacked, but these later writings had not a tithe of the popularity and influence of his earlier work. He published his books either anonymously or under borrowed names, and was forced to have them printed out of France. The uprightness and sincerity of his character won the friendship of many to whom his philosophy was repugnant. J. J. Rousseau is supposed to have drawn his portrait in the virtuous atheist Wolmar of the Nouvelle Héloïse. He died on the 21st of January 1789.
Holbach is also the author of the following and other works: Esprit du clergé (1767); De l’imposture sacerdotale (1767); Prêtres démasqués (1768); Examen critique de la vie et des ouvrages de St Paul (1770); Histoire critique de Jésus-Christ (1770), and Ethocratie (1776). For further particulars as to his life and doctrines see Grimm’s Correspondance littéraire, &c. (1813); Rousseau’s Confessions; Morellet’s Mémoires (1821); Madame de Genlis, Les Dîners du Baron Holbach; Madame d’Épinay’s Mémoires; Avezac-Lavigne, Diderot et la société du Baron d’Holbach (1875), and Morley’s Diderot (1878).
HOLBEACH, a market town in the Holland or Spalding
parliamentary division of Lincolnshire, England, on the
Midland and Great Northern joint railway, 2312 m. N.E. of
Peterborough. Pop. of urban district (1901), 4755. All Saints’ Church, with a lofty spire, is a fine specimen of late Decorated work. The grammar school, founded in 1669, occupies a building erected in 1877. Other public buildings are the assembly rooms and a market house. Roman and Saxon remains have been found, and the market dates from the 13th century.
HOLBEIN, HANS, the elder (c. 1460–1524), belonged to a celebrated family of painters in practice at Augsburg and Basel from the close of the 15th to the middle of the 16th century. Though closely connected with Venice by her commercial relations, and geographically nearer to Italy than to Flanders, Augsburg at the time of Maximilian cultivated art after the fashion of the Flemings, and felt the influence of the schools of Bruges and Brussels, which had branches at Cologne and in many cities about the headwaters of the Rhine. It was not till after the opening of the 16th century, and between that and the era of the Reformation, that Italian example mitigatedto some extent the asperity of South German painting. Flemish and German art was first tempered with Italian elements at Augsburg by Hans Holbein the elder. Hans first appears at Augsburg as partner to his brother Sigismund, who survived him and died in 1540 at Berne. Sigismund is described as a painter, but his works have not come down to us. Hans had the lead of the partnership at Augsburg, and signed all the pictures which it produced. In common with Herlen, Schöngauer, and other masters of South Germany, he first cultivated a style
