Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) is considered by many to be Japan’s greatest artist. During his seventy-year career, he produced a considerable oeuvre of some 3,000 color prints, illustrations for over 200 books, hundreds of drawings, and over 1,000 paintings. This exciting collection of 103 exquisite small drawings were made for an unpublished book called The Great Picture Book of Everything – featuring wide-ranging subjects from depictions of religious, mythological, historical, and literary figures to animals, birds, flowers, and other natural phenomena, as well as landscapes. They are dominated by subjects that relate to ancient China and India, also Southeast and Central Asia. Many subjects found in the collection are not found in previous Hokusai works, including fascinating imaginings of the origin of human culture in ancient China.

This beautifully produced book draws on the latest research, illustrating the complete set of drawings, published for the first time.

Table of Contents

Directors’ foreword

Introduction
Commentaries for 103 Hokusai drawings
Concordance of exhibits

Catalogue of works – all 103 drawings reproduced at actual size:
India
China
Natural world