(Transmitted from the Gods) Hokusai's Garden of Pictures (Denshin kaishu Hokusai gaen), vol. 2

(Transmitted from the Gods) Hokusai's Garden of Pictures (Denshin kaishu Hokusai gaen), volume 2, published in 1843, is one of Katsushika Hokusai's late illustrated books and forms part of an ongoing project that ran in parallel with the Hokusai Manga. The honorific reference to divinely transmitted artistry in the title underscores Hokusai's late conception of his draughtsmanship as a gift to be passed on to students and successors. The volume gathers pictures of plants, birds, mythological subjects and figures from classical Chinese and Japanese tradition, presented in a style that blends instructional clarity with characteristic Hokusai liveliness. Although it differs from a single ukiyo-e print, the book belongs to the wider field of Edo ukiyo-e publishing, drawing on the same carvers, printers and paper traditions. Hokusai was in his eighties when the volume appeared and continued to insist that his draughtsmanship was still maturing, an attitude that animates the later pages of his garden of pictures. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London preserves a copy, supporting comparative study with the manga and the other illustrated books of the artist's late career. The V&A's deep collection of Hokusai's printed books has made it a primary destination for European scholarship on his pedagogic and encyclopedic ambitions. The garden of pictures testifies to the integrity and stamina of Hokusai's final decades.