Series: Denshin kaishu Hokusai Manga (Beginners' Education Through the Spirit of Things)
Technique: Colour woodcut ( nishiki-e ) in two shades of grey and one of pink
Format: Koban (approx. 180x125 mm)
Signatures: Toto gako zen Hokusai sensei Katsushika Taito hitsu
Date: executed between 1814 and 1849
Publishers: Eirakuya and Katano Toshiro
Delicate proof in an edition datable around the second half of the 19th century. Printed on Japan paper. In perfect condition, with a small margin all around.
Bibliography:
M. Forrer, Manga , Hazan Eds, 2014
JA Michener, Hokusai sketch books , Rutland and Tokyo, 1958
GC Calza, Hokusai. The old man crazy about painting , Exhibition catalogue Milan 1999-2000, London, 2003
M. Forrer, Hokusai. Prints and drawings , London, 1991
J. Hillier, The art of Hokusai in book illustration , London, 1980
R. Lane, Hokusai. Life and Works , Milan, 1991
The term “manga” , at the time, indicated “images without constraints” and referred to didactic, playful and illustrative collections. Hokusai’s Manga , published from 1814 onwards, are an extraordinary collection of spontaneous sketches and visual notes: human figures, animals, landscapes, scenes of daily life and decorative motifs follow one another with grace, irony and precision.
Designed as tools for teaching and artistic practice, these volumes were used to be copied, studied, admired. They partly anticipate modern Japanese visual culture, but with a very different meaning from the one we associate today with the word "manga", now synonymous with comics.