| Manga (15 volume series) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Hokusai |
| Year | Published 1814-1878 |
| Type | Wood block prints |
The Hokusai Manga (北斎漫画, "Hokusai's Sketches") is a collection of sketches of various subjects by the Japanese artist Hokusai. Subjects of the sketches include landscapes, flora and fauna, everyday life and the supernatural.
The word manga in the title does not refer to the contemporary story-telling manga, as the sketches in the work are not connected to each other. While manga has come to mean "comics" in modern Japanese, the word was used in the Edo period to mean informal drawings, possibly preparatory sketches for paintings.[1]
Block-printed in three colours (black, gray and pale flesh), the Hokusai Manga comprises thousands of images in ten volumes from 1814 to 1819, with five volumes added in 1834 to 1878.[1] The first volume was published in 1814, when the artist was 55.
The final three volumes were published posthumously, two of them assembled by their publisher from previously unpublished material. The final volume was made up of previously published works, some not even by Hokusai, and is not considered authentic by art historians.
- ^ a b Thompson, Sarah E. (2015). Hokusai (1st ed.). Boston, MA: MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts Boston. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-87846-825-6.