Edo prints
Design: | Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) | |||||
Title: | Hokusai manga, Volume 9 | |||||
Size: | 22.7 x 15.8 cm | |||||
Posthumous printing from the original woodblocks | ||||||
Photography: | Jacques Commandeur |
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Originally released in 1819 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.
Grey book cover with embossed repeated diamond shaped pattern.
Title printed in red on a white slip on the book cover:
Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
葛 | katsu | arrowroot | |
飾 | shika | decorate | Katsushika |
為 | i | change | |
一 | itsu | one | one year old again |
遺 | i | leave behind | |
墨 | boku | black ink | brushwork |
北 | hoku | north | |
斎 | sai | room | |
漫 | man | random | Random sketches |
画 | ga | drawing | of Hokusai |
九 | ku | nine | |
編 | hen | volume | Volume 9 |
全 | zen | all | All in one |
This is the title page of the second edition of Volume 9 of the Hokusai manga:
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 |
九 | ku | nine | |
編 | hen | volume | Volume 9 |
On the right of the page is the publication date:
Character | Reading | Meaning | Translation |
文 | bun | text | |
政 | sei | government | |
己 | tsuchinoto*) | 6th calendar sign | |
卯 | u | hare | |
新 | shin | new | New publication of Bunsei, |
刻 | koku | carve | year of the hare (i.e., 1819) |
and the firm name of the publisher is on the left of the page:
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:
The full contents of Volume 9 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: Shukado
*) Tsuchinoto combines tsuchi (earth, one of the five elements) and to (yin).