Hokusai manga (Sketches of Hokusai), v. 1-3, 5-11, and 14 of 15

Hokusai manga (Sketches of Hokusai), v. 1-3, 5-11, and 14 of 15 is a set of woodblock-printed books by Katsushika Hokusai, with the first volume issued in 1814 and the Art Institute of Chicago dating this group around 1807 within its broader holdings of the series. The Hokusai manga is one of the most influential publications in Edo ukiyo-e: a sprawling visual encyclopedia of figures, animals, plants, landscapes, ghosts, dancers, craftsmen, and mythical creatures, organized as if it were a sketchbook open to the public. Originally compiled as instructional models for students, the volumes quickly found an enormous audience of casual readers, fellow artists, and, eventually, European collectors who recognized in them the spontaneous freedom often missing from official painting. Each page collects related figures or motifs with the minimum of background, letting Hokusai's line do the structural work. The series sums up much of the observational habit that he was already cultivating in his early-1800s surimono and Tokaido sheets, where figures were sketched with the same economy. As ukiyo-e prints, the Hokusai manga volumes also helped redefine what Edo print culture could do, expanding the medium beyond single-sheet broadsides to encompass entire books of pictorial reference. The Art Institute of Chicago's holdings preserve a substantial run of the original editions, allowing viewers to study Katsushika Hokusai's full range as draftsman, observer, and teacher.