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KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI

Hokusai Manga. Volume 11

Hanabusaya Heikichi, Edo [Tokyo] 1850 (ca1850), 15,9x22,5cm, cousu.

Rare edition, which can be translated as Hokusa's Sketches. This volume is the 11th of 15 manga volumes of Hokusai's sketches published between 1818 and 1878. The volume contains around fifty illustrated pages, some on double-page spreads in black, grey and flesh, others containing 4 or even multiple figures. It is essential to add that it is impossible to determine whether this is the first or a later print run, because in this respect there was no difference for the Japanese, and the publisher reprinted volumes as needed, the notion of a first print run being irrelevant to the Japanese book. 
Accordion volume, bound by a seam. Grey cover with red title label. Soiling to covers. A good copy.
Hokusai manga deal with a variety of subjects, including scenes of everyday life, war scenes, typically Japanese legends, animals and flowers. It is generally considered that, after a period of intense production, Hokusai selected his sketches very carefully, and even redrew a number of them, arranging them in the order we know today. However, Michener maintains that the layout of the various sketches on a given plate was in fact decided by the engravers and publishers, and not by Hokusai himself. It should be remembered that the Japanese printmaking technique is very close to the original drawing, since the ink drawing was affixed to a piece of wood that the engraver carved out, precisely following the lines of the drawing, which was itself destroyed in the process.

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