Hokusai

Hokusai Maximus
The most distinguished artist of Edo-period Japan, explored like never before

At the age of six, Hokusai was said to have painted his first picture, and a year after his death aged 89, his designs for illustrated books were posthumously published. Tracing a long, prolific career, this edition spans each of the artist’s creative phases: from the actor portraits with which Hokusai started out to the 1,300 designs carried out in his final years under the name Manji.

Reproducing 746 woodblock prints, paintings, sketches, and book illustrations, many of them in granular detail, this volume is comfortably the most complete publication on perhaps Japan’s most famous artist. Hokusai’s wide appeal as the recognizable figure of Japan’s Edo period endures to this day: in March 2023, a version of his iconic woodblock print Under the Wave off Kanagawa (or The Great Wave), from his series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, was auctioned for 2.76 million US dollars.

Looking far beyond The Great Wave, this monograph features both familiar and lesser known, rarely reprinted artworks. Entitled The (almost) complete Hokusai, it offers an unmatched variety of subjects and techniques: from a landscape of the Kirifuri Waterfall to large-format maps of the Tōkaidō and Kisokaidō roads and the Bōsō Peninsula; spreads of illustrated books, from his sensual, imaginative erotica (shunga) to drawing manuals such as the fifteen-volume Hokusai manga; and several depictions of animals, from his various woodblock print series on birds and flowers to his later hanging scroll paintings of ducks amidst a flowing stream and a tiger suspended in the snow.

The result of an extensive campaign of new photography, this edition has sourced images of artworks from over 100 institutions worldwide. These include museums and collections from Europe and the United States to Japan, such as the Hiei Shrine at Kisarazu, where a surviving panel painting of a boar hunt at the foot of Mount Fuji was rephotographed for this edition.

Informacja dotycząca wprowadzenia produktu do obrotu:
Ten produkt został wprowadzony na rynek przed 13 grudnia 2024 r. zgodnie z obowiązującymi wówczas przepisami (Dyrektywą o ogólnym bezpieczeństwie produktów). W związku z tym może on być nadal sprzedawany bez konieczności dostosowania do nowych wymogów wynikających z Rozporządzenia o Ogólnym Bezpieczeństwie Produktów (GPSR). Produkt zachowuje pełną legalność w obrocie, a jego jakość i bezpieczeństwo pozostają zgodne z obowiązującymi wcześniej standardami.

Information regarding product placement on the market:
This product was placed on the market before December 13, 2024, in accordance with the applicable regulations at the time (the General Product Safety Directive). As a result, it can continue to be sold without needing to meet the new requirements introduced by the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR). The product remains fully compliant with all previously valid legal standards, ensuring its continued quality and safety.