What do you think?
Rate this book
Hokusai Manga
In 1814, Hokusai’s sketches were published in a handbook of over 4,000 Hokusai Manga . It surpassed expectations as a student reference book, and became a bestseller. Here, in an elegant, three-volume package, an expansive selection of these works are revealed, presenting all of the themes, motifs and drawing techniques found in his art. The caricatures, satirical drawings, multi-panel illustrations and narrative depictions found in the book can clearly be seen as the basis for manga as it is understood today. One volume explores The Life and Manners of the Day (studying habits and objects of the everyday, from architectural features to wrestling moves and facial expressions); the second The Whole Earth Catalogue (largely concerned with nature, from animals to rock faces and fish); and the third presents the Fanciful, Mythical and Supernatural (with images narrating myths and displaying fantastical creatures).
Table of Contents
Volume 1 : The Life and Manners of the Day • Volume 2 : The Whole Earth Catalogue
Volume 3 : Fanciful, Mythical and Supernatural
Table of Contents
Volume 1 : The Life and Manners of the Day • Volume 2 : The Whole Earth Catalogue
Volume 3 : Fanciful, Mythical and Supernatural
1040 pages, Hardcover
Published October 27, 2020
10 people are currently reading
419 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
June 4, 2019
Volume 1: Edo Life
Preface: Learning from Hokusai
--People, People, People
--Daily Life
--Figures in Motion
--Objects and Architecture
Understanding 'Hokusai Manga':
The Origins of 'Hokusai Manga', by Nagata Seiji
Publishing Culture in Edo-Period Japan
The Transcendent Ego: Interview with Artist Aida Makoto
Note to Readers
Volume 2: The Wonders of Nature
Preface: Learning from Hokusai
--Birds, Beasts, Insects & Fish
--Mountains, Rivers, Plants & Trees
--Waves, Tides, Streams & Rivers
--From the Heavens
Understanding 'Hokusai Manga':
Nature in 'Hokusai Manga', by Nagata Seiji
Looking at the Floating World Through the Eyes of Manga: Interview with Manga Artist Shiriagari Kotobuki
Note to Readers
Volume 3: Flights of Fancy
Preface: Learning from Hokusai
--A Compendium of Craziness
--A League of Legends
--A Phalanx of Phantoms
--A Deluge of Deities
--'Hokusai Manga': The Original Forewords
Understanding 'Hokusai Manga':
'Hokusai Manga': A Book of Innovation, by Nagata Seiji
'Hokusai Manga' Travels the World: Interview with Uragami Mitsuru
Incomplete Masterpieces, Incomplete Lives: Interview with Artist Yokoo Tadanori
Note to Readers
Preface: Learning from Hokusai
--People, People, People
--Daily Life
--Figures in Motion
--Objects and Architecture
Understanding 'Hokusai Manga':
The Origins of 'Hokusai Manga', by Nagata Seiji
Publishing Culture in Edo-Period Japan
The Transcendent Ego: Interview with Artist Aida Makoto
Note to Readers
Volume 2: The Wonders of Nature
Preface: Learning from Hokusai
--Birds, Beasts, Insects & Fish
--Mountains, Rivers, Plants & Trees
--Waves, Tides, Streams & Rivers
--From the Heavens
Understanding 'Hokusai Manga':
Nature in 'Hokusai Manga', by Nagata Seiji
Looking at the Floating World Through the Eyes of Manga: Interview with Manga Artist Shiriagari Kotobuki
Note to Readers
Volume 3: Flights of Fancy
Preface: Learning from Hokusai
--A Compendium of Craziness
--A League of Legends
--A Phalanx of Phantoms
--A Deluge of Deities
--'Hokusai Manga': The Original Forewords
Understanding 'Hokusai Manga':
'Hokusai Manga': A Book of Innovation, by Nagata Seiji
'Hokusai Manga' Travels the World: Interview with Uragami Mitsuru
Incomplete Masterpieces, Incomplete Lives: Interview with Artist Yokoo Tadanori
Note to Readers
November 24, 2021
Breathtaking. One of the most ensorcelling art books I've found by one of my all-time favorite artists. You are familiar with Hokusai's woodblock prints. His art has become synonymous with Eastern art. A legend. This edition is small in size, but impressive in content. His depiction of creatures, landscapes, plants, and people both drawn from life and his imagination are fascinating for their precision and that delicate balance of suggestion and detail. Like all truly great artists, any human being, upon viewing his works, can interpret his images and instantly recognize the subjects and fall into the parallel universe crafted by this unique genius.
December 20, 2019
Zeer ruime selectie uit de gigantische, 15 volumes tellende collectie houtsnedes van Hokusai, gepubliceerd tussen 1814 en 1871. Ingedeeld in hoofdstukken per onderwerp (onder meer landschappen, flora en fauna, het leven van alledag, legendes en het bovennatuurlijke). ‘Manga’ in de titel refereert niet aan de hedendaagse stripvorm, maar aan de verteltechniek (‘losse onderwerpen’). De reproducties van de houtbloktechniek in de drie kleuren zwart, grijs en bleek-vleeskleurig zijn indrukwekkend. Het meesterschap van Hokusai is schier eindeloos: zijn boek was bedoeld als leerboek. Bladeren erin volstaat om te begrijpen waarom. Elk deel heeft een uitgebreid begeleidend essay. Klein formaat, een kartonnen cassette borgt de 3 handzame delen. Een unicum om eeuwig in te bladeren.
January 17, 2019
These little books are packed full of beautiful artwork by Hokusai. They are a pleasure to browse.
January 10, 2020
Prachtig!
November 24, 2020
This guy was so far ahead of his time that he was doing art comics in 1814...
February 23, 2021
Such an interesting glimpse into the everyday life during the Tokugawa shogunate. this shogunate relied on a hierarchical status order with clear social boundaries to maintain political power and legitimacy.
Popular cultural works like these prints subvert the status order because they celebrate the working class, the “idler” (artists, vagrants, beggars). The first volume, Edo Life, reveals Hokusai’s artistic muses within Edo were the commoners: men playing games, performances of music/dance, painting, bathing, kabuki performance, doing household chores, chopping wood etc. These realistic depictions of nameless, everyday people can be seen as an unconscious negation of the social hierarchy through their depictions and celebrations of the low over high, body over mind, and the innumerable commoner over the limited elite. The negation is evident when one compares Hokusai’s realistic depictions of figures going through the motions of their day to the official arts that reinforced the social hierarchy through depictions of humans in abstract, static, and heavenly images. An additional contradiction illuminated within these prints is the hypocrisy that most of these people depicted would be condemned as morally “idle” yet their body is more productive than the ruling elite and is practically in constant motion from labor to leisure. Hokusai valued the commoner and their varied contributions to society, beyond the narrow social boundaries prescribed by authorities.
Additionally, Hokusai also took a more direct route to his critique of the Tokugawa political and social landscape in a print within Edo Life. He depicted a samurai in a privy while his retainers waited uncomfortably outside (116). Hokusai reminded his audience that the samurai class were not physiologically different despite their great social and political advantages granted by the social hierarchy. He also exhibits the absurdity of the loyal retainers waiting outside for their lord to finish because of the rigid prescribed boundaries. The contradictory notion that the samurai were endowed with higher powers and therefore embody virtue and knowledge, yet make a task such as going to the restroom an unproductive and foolish spectacle of power dynamics, is revealed in this print. The critique of the higher classes and interest in the everyday experience would be a recurring theme in the cultural imaginations of the late-eighteenth century popular culture in Edo.
Popular cultural works like these prints subvert the status order because they celebrate the working class, the “idler” (artists, vagrants, beggars). The first volume, Edo Life, reveals Hokusai’s artistic muses within Edo were the commoners: men playing games, performances of music/dance, painting, bathing, kabuki performance, doing household chores, chopping wood etc. These realistic depictions of nameless, everyday people can be seen as an unconscious negation of the social hierarchy through their depictions and celebrations of the low over high, body over mind, and the innumerable commoner over the limited elite. The negation is evident when one compares Hokusai’s realistic depictions of figures going through the motions of their day to the official arts that reinforced the social hierarchy through depictions of humans in abstract, static, and heavenly images. An additional contradiction illuminated within these prints is the hypocrisy that most of these people depicted would be condemned as morally “idle” yet their body is more productive than the ruling elite and is practically in constant motion from labor to leisure. Hokusai valued the commoner and their varied contributions to society, beyond the narrow social boundaries prescribed by authorities.
Additionally, Hokusai also took a more direct route to his critique of the Tokugawa political and social landscape in a print within Edo Life. He depicted a samurai in a privy while his retainers waited uncomfortably outside (116). Hokusai reminded his audience that the samurai class were not physiologically different despite their great social and political advantages granted by the social hierarchy. He also exhibits the absurdity of the loyal retainers waiting outside for their lord to finish because of the rigid prescribed boundaries. The contradictory notion that the samurai were endowed with higher powers and therefore embody virtue and knowledge, yet make a task such as going to the restroom an unproductive and foolish spectacle of power dynamics, is revealed in this print. The critique of the higher classes and interest in the everyday experience would be a recurring theme in the cultural imaginations of the late-eighteenth century popular culture in Edo.
December 4, 2020
These volumes were so thoughtfully put together which made it a comprehensive and enjoyable introduction to Hokusai Manga. And wow, how cool all of Hokusai’s drawings are. It was such a pleasure to look over each of the volumes and appreciate the breadth of subjects covered.
All of Hokusai’s work has such a rich and realistic vibe to it. I really recommend checking these volumes out to get an immersive overview of his work. It’s amazing to think these were originally done by Hokusai to teach his apprentices how to draw. What he ended up gifting us all was a full compendium of life as it was and as he imagined it to be.
Now I am better educated on his work and influence, I’ve been seeing it everywhere! Very cool and now I really want to check out more of his work.
All of Hokusai’s work has such a rich and realistic vibe to it. I really recommend checking these volumes out to get an immersive overview of his work. It’s amazing to think these were originally done by Hokusai to teach his apprentices how to draw. What he ended up gifting us all was a full compendium of life as it was and as he imagined it to be.
Now I am better educated on his work and influence, I’ve been seeing it everywhere! Very cool and now I really want to check out more of his work.
February 17, 2022
The manga here means "pictures drawn whimsically." This just adds to the wonder of Hokusai and is truly admirably large scale of work but also volume of work.
I would really recommend reading for example Taschen book Hokusai or any book about his work, woodcuts and the importants of edo period because "Hokusai Manga" is great expansion of that read, accompanied by the explanations of editors who did amazing work scanning and putting the three volumes together, showing and exploring Hokusai work in his own detail.
I would really recommend reading for example Taschen book Hokusai or any book about his work, woodcuts and the importants of edo period because "Hokusai Manga" is great expansion of that read, accompanied by the explanations of editors who did amazing work scanning and putting the three volumes together, showing and exploring Hokusai work in his own detail.
September 26, 2025
También estoy leyendo Viaje al Oeste en estos momentos. Hokusai Manga me asombró todo, pero en especial fue excelente encontrarme con la ilustración de Sun Wu-Kung y Tathagata.
(Los pelos convirtiéndose en Sun Wu-Kung!! qué cosa tan horripilantemente asombrosa).
(Los pelos convirtiéndose en Sun Wu-Kung!! qué cosa tan horripilantemente asombrosa).
October 1, 2019
One of the most influential collections of art ever. So inspiring, detailed and full of character.
February 17, 2020
Good for practicing drawing. Or just browsing is also fun.
July 9, 2020
Hokusai, o desenhador japonês do séc. XIX que almejava desenhar tudo o havia debaixo do Sol, real e onírico.
Quase, quase o conseguiu...
Quase, quase o conseguiu...
October 22, 2020
A fantastic set of books with beautiful illustrations! I've always been a fan of Hokusai and seeing these sketches upclose were just pure magic. Definitely worth the money.
July 22, 2022
Chévere conocer la vida de este gran pintor. A veces me pareció algo confusa la cronología y los hechos. Pero en general valió la pena
May 8, 2023
Coś pięknego.
April 28, 2025
Si bien algunos dibujos dan ganas de tenerlos en un formato más grande para apreciar todos los detalles, es una maravillosa edición y colección.
Indispensable tenerlo en tu librería si eres ilustrador o simplemente amante del arte japones.
Indispensable tenerlo en tu librería si eres ilustrador o simplemente amante del arte japones.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews