Edo prints


  Design: Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)  
  Title: Hokusai manga, Volume 7  
  Size: 22.6 x 15.7 cm  
  Posthumous printing from the original woodblocks    
  Photography: Jacques Commandeur
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Hokusai Sumida Gawa Ehon 1

Enlargement


Originally released in 1817 in Nagoya by publisher Eirakuya Tōshirō, whose firm was called Tōhekidō. This is the second edition released by the same publisher on 1 September 1878.

Light brown book cover with embossed repeated diamond shaped 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
       
nana seven  
hen volume Volume 7
       
zen all All in one


This is the title page of the second edition of Volume 7 of the Hokusai manga:

Hokusai Manga Volume 7 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
       
nana seven  
hen volume Volume 7

Name of the designer in the top right corner of the page:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
katsu arrowroot  
shika decorate  
i do  
itsu one  
sen ahead Designed by
sei life teacher
hitsu writing brush Katsushika Iitsu

In the bottom right is a design of a packhorse with a load inscribed with the following kanji:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
den transmit  
shin god  
kai opening Transmitting the soul
shu hand and enlighten the hand

On the left of the page are the publication date:

Character Reading Meaning Translation
       
bun text  
ka turn oneself into  
hinoto*) 4th calendar sign  
ushi ox  
shin new New publication of Bunka,
koku carve year of the ox (i.e., 1817)

and the firm name of the publisher:

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 7 seal

The full contents of Volume 7 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

*) Hinoto combines hi (fire, one of the five elements) and to (yin).

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