Ippitsu gafu (Album of Drawings with One Stroke), complete in 1 vol.

Published in 1818, the Ippitsu gafu, or Album of Drawings with One Stroke, is one of Katsushika Hokusai's many illustrated picture books, a single-volume manual demonstrating how a wide variety of subjects can be rendered using continuous, unbroken brushstrokes. Throughout the volume, Hokusai applies this challenging principle of single-stroke drawing to figures, animals, plants, landscapes, and decorative motifs, showing how the disciplined economy of one continuous line can capture the essence of a subject. As an Edo ukiyo-e print project, the book belongs to the substantial tradition of Hokusai's pictorial manuals, which began with the Manga in 1814 and continued through a number of specialized albums. The work is intended both as practical instruction for aspiring artists and as virtuosic demonstration of Hokusai's own command of the brush. The Art Institute of Chicago holds a copy of the album within its collection of Japanese illustrated books. The Ippitsu gafu reveals the philosophical underpinnings of Hokusai's draughtsmanship: that confident line-making depends on understanding both the structure of the subject and the rhythm of the hand, and that economy of means can paradoxically expand expressive range. The single-stroke principle, drawn from the long tradition of Chinese and Japanese calligraphic painting, was a particularly demanding constraint that Hokusai embraced with characteristic confidence. The album also documents his pedagogical impulse, his desire to share methods with students and fellow artists, and his sense that publishing offered a way to extend his teaching beyond the studio. For modern viewers, the volume is a remarkable demonstration of how a single artistic principle can generate visual variety, and it remains a touchstone for understanding the foundations of Hokusai's mature style across all his ukiyo-e production.