Hokusai Picture Book (Hokusai gafu), vol.3

Hokusai Picture Book (Hokusai gafu), volume 3, published in 1875 in a posthumous edition, gathers designs by Katsushika Hokusai for instruction and pleasure. The Hokusai gafu series, produced and reissued from the 1840s through the early Meiji era, demonstrates the durability of Hokusai's commercial brand and the willingness of his publishers to keep his designs in print decades after his death in 1849. As a publication, the book belongs to the wider field of Edo ukiyo-e printmaking even as it appears in the Meiji period, retaining the carvers, blocks and paper traditions of the late shogunal era. Volume 3 includes figure subjects, animal studies, landscapes and decorative motifs, all rendered in the dynamic linear style that characterised Hokusai's mature draughtsmanship. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London preserves a copy, and the museum's deep holdings of Hokusai's books support detailed comparison with the Manga, the Garden of Pictures and the various pattern manuals. As a ukiyo-e print compilation, the Hokusai gafu illustrates the way the master's draughtsmanship continued to function as a model for ambitious students and amateur painters into the modern era. The 1875 edition is also a primary document for understanding the early Meiji reception of Hokusai, including the moment at which European and American collectors began acquiring his books in significant numbers.