青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

For manga enthusiasts, a feast for the eyes!

In 1814 the ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai published a handbook of sketches titled Hokusai manga. Fourteen more volumes followed over the next decades, for a series totaling more than 4,000 illustrations over 970 pages; not only did the publication surpass its initial ambitions to serve as a reference for aspiring artists, it grew into a bestseller and enduring favorite. Now available in a compact and reorganized but complete modern reprint, the sketches present in concentrated form all the themes, motifs, and drawing techniques to be found in Hokusai’s art. Delight in the spirited and richly narrative caricatures, satirical drawings, and multiple-panel “comic strips,” and you’ll surely understand why this landmark body of work is considered one of the roots of today’s manga.

Volume 3, Fanciful, Mythical and Supernatural, brings together depictions of the world of imagination, from legends and fairy tales to gods and ghosts and other beings beyond human ken.

Commentary by Seiji Nagata (Ota Memorial Museum of Art)
With interviews of artist Tadanori Yokoo and art collector Mitsuru Uragami