Edo prints


  Design: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)  
  Title: Hokusai manga, Volume 2  
  Size: 24.4 x 16.3 cm  
  Posthumous printing from the original woodblocks    
  Photography: Jacques Commandeur
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Hokusai manga Volume 2

Enlargement


Originally released in 1815 in Nagoya by publisher Eirakuya Tōshirō, whose firm was called Tōhekidō. This is a later impression of great print quality by publisher Yoshikawa Hanshichi of the second edition released by Eirakuya Tōshirō in 1828.

Orange book cover with embossed Chinese pattern.

Title printed in red on a white slip on the book cover:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
katsu arrowroot  
shika decorate Katsushika
       
i change  
itsu one one year old again
       
i leave behind  
boku black ink brushwork
       
hoku north  
sai room  
man random Random sketches
ga drawing of Hokusai
       
ni two  
hen volume Volume 2
       
zen all All in one


This is the title page of the second edition of Volume 2 of the Hokusai manga:

Hokusai Manga Volume 2 title page

Volume title in the large middle column of this title page:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
hoku north  
sai room  
man random Random sketches
ga drawing of Hokusai
       
ni two  
hen volume Volume 2

On the right of the page is the original publication date:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
bun text  
ka turn oneself into  
kinoto*) second calendar sign  
i boar  
shin new New publication of Bunka,
koku carve year of the boar (i.e., 1815)

and the firm name of the publisher is on the left:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
bi tail  
positive  
       
east  
heki wall Tōhekidō
temple of Biyō

Seal on the verso of the title page:

Hokusai Manga Volume 2 seal

The full contents of Volume 2 of the Hokusai manga can be viewed on the website dedicated to the Gerhard Pulverer Collection 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


Provenance: Yagiya Bobongua store

*) Kinoto combines ki (wood, one of the five elements) and to (yin).

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