Edo prints
| Design: | Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) | |||||
| Title: | Hokusai manga, Volume 15 | |||||
| Size: | 24.5 x 16.3 cm | |||||
| Posthumous printing from the original woodblocks | ||||||
| Photography: | Jacques Commandeur |
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Volume 15, the last volume of the Hokusai manga, was released in 1878 - almost 30 years after Hokusai’s death in 1849 - by publisher Eirakuya Tōshirō, whose firm was called Tōhekidō. It contains many reproductions of sketches from Hokusai’s Denshin gakyō picture book published much earlier in 1818. This version of Volume 15 is a later impression released by publisher Yoshikawa Hanshichi who acquired the blocks from Eirakuya Tōshirō.
Orange book cover with embossed Chinese pattern.
Title printed in red on a white slip on the book cover:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 方 | kata | person | |
| 野 | no | field | Katano |
| 東 | tō | east | |
| 四 | shi | four | |
| 郎 | rō | man | Tōshirō |
| 編 | hen | edit | |
| 輯 | shū | collect | editor |
| 北 | hoku | north | |
| 斎 | sai | room | |
| 漫 | man | random | Random sketches |
| 画 | ga | drawing | of Hokusai |
| 十 | jū | ten | |
| 五 | go | five | |
| 編 | hen | volume | Volume 15 |
| 全 | zen | all | All in one |
This is the title page of this later impression of Volume 15 of the Hokusai manga:
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Volume title in the large middle column of this title page:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 北 | hoku | north | |
| 斎 | sai | room | |
| 漫 | man | random | Random sketches |
| 画 | ga | drawing | of Hokusai |
| 十 | jū | ten | |
| 五 | go | five | |
| 編 | hen | volume | Volume 15 |
On the right is the publication date:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 明 | mei | light | |
| 治 | ji | government | |
| 戊 | tsuchinoe*) | 5th calendar sign | |
| 寅 | tora | tiger | |
| 新 | shin | new | New publication in Meiji, |
| 刻 | koku | carving | year of the tiger, i.e., 1878 |
and on the left the firm name of the publisher:
| Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
| 尾 | bi | tail | |
| 陽 | yō | positive | |
| 東 | tō | east | |
| 壁 | heki | wall | Tōhekidō |
| 堂 | dō | temple | of Biyō |
Seal on the verso of the title page:
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Colophon on the inside of the back cover:
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In the first column on the right is the name of the designer, 葛飾北斎筆, Katsushika Hokusai hitsu, i.e., by the brush of Katsushika Hokusai. The next two columns from the right contain the name of the publisher, 吉川半七, Yoshikawa Hanshichi, and his address. The last four columns from the right contain the names of two booksellers and their addresses.
The full contents of the first version of Volume 15 of the Hokusai manga are shown on the website of the London British Museum here, as well as in the book by Forrer (2014) containing photographic reproductions of all fifteen Hokusai manga volumes, including explanations of each image in French.
References
- Dalon, Laure, Nagata, Seiji, Negishi, Mika, Takemura, Makoto, Okuda, Atsuko (2014). Hokusai. Paris, Grand Palais, Galeries Nationales, 1er octobre 2014 - 18 janvier 2015. Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux.
- Forrer, Matthi (1985). Eirakuya Tōshirō, publisher at Nagoya. A contribution to the history of publishing in 19th century Japan. Amsterdam: J.C. Gieben.
- Forrer, Matthi (2010). Hokusai. Munich: Prestel Verlag.
- Forrer, Matthi (2014). Hokusai. La Manga. L’Édition Complète Commentée (2 volumes in slipcase). Paris: Editions Hazan.
- Forrer, Matthi, Gulik, Willem R. van, and Kaempfer, Heinz M. (1982). Hokusai and his school: paintings, drawings and illustrated books. Leiden: Society for Japanese Arts and Crafts.
Provenance: Yagiya Bobongua store
*) Tsuchinoe combines tsuchi (earth, one of the five elements) and e (yang).