*Hokusai Manga* — Encyclopedia of 4,000 Figures, and the Origin of the Word 'Manga'

What Is Hokusai Manga?

Hokusai Manga is a picture handbook (edehon) — a textbook of drawing — that Katsushika Hokusai published from 1814 (Bunka 11) to 1878 (Meiji 11). All 15 volumes, 100-200 figures per book, containing a total of more than 4,000 figures — the greatest encyclopedia of drawing of the Edo era.

The word “manga” is the direct etymological source of modern Japanese manga (comic). But Hokusai Manga is different from modern manga:

• There is no story — each figure is independent
• No dialogue or speech bubbles
• “A book of drawing samples” — a textbook for aspiring painters and amateur illustrators to copy
• “Manga” = “pictures drawn as the mood takes one” — the meaning of a sketch collection

That is, Hokusai Manga is “an encyclopedia of drawing and sketch.” It is different from modern manga, but it is one source of the face-drawing technique of 20th-century Japanese manga.

Birth — On a Journey to Nagoya

1812, Hokusai at 53 on a Journey

• Autumn 1812, Hokusai travels to Nagoya
• Purpose is guest teaching for his disciples and enthusiasts
• Stayed half a year in the home of Nagoya disciple Maki Bokusen
• During his stay, drew and accumulated great numbers of sketches on paper

Maki Bokusen was himself a painter and had a plan to turn Hokusai’s pictures into a printed book to circulate in Edo and Kamigata.

1814, First Volume Published

• 1814, from the Nagoya publisher Eirakuya Tōshirō, the Denshin Kaishu Hokusai Manga first volume is published
• The cover carries “Denshin Kaishu” = “transmit the spirit, open the hand” = conveying the secret of drawing
• Half-sheet size (about 22 cm tall), monochrome (ink and light ink with soft coloring)
• A big hit in the first volume alone, reprinted in Edo, Kyoto, and Kamigata

Publication of Sequels

• 1815, volumes 2 and 3
• 1816-1817, volumes 4 and 5
• After this, sequels every few years
• 1849, Hokusai dies at 89 — up to volume 13 at this point
• 1878 (Meiji 11), volumes 14 and 15 are published posthumously
• All 15 volumes, over 4,000 figures in total

The fact that sequels continued for 30 years after Hokusai’s death shows the continuous demand for this series. Throughout the Edo to Meiji era, it was a long-selling textbook of drawing.

Classification of 4,000 Figures

The subjects of Hokusai Manga extend over enormously wide ground. A rough classification:

1. Humans (Most Common)

• By occupation — samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant, monk, courtesan, entertainer
• By action — running, jumping, sitting, sleeping, eating, fighting, dancing
• By expression — laughing, weeping, angry, surprised
• Group scenes — festivals, markets, banquets, brawls

Hokusai was good at catching the moment of motion, and especially the poses of combat, martial arts, and dance are fully represented. This directly influences the action drawing of later manga and anime.

2. Yōkai, Ghosts, and the Weird

• The prototype of Edo’s yōkai encyclopedia
• Kappa, oni, skeletons, bakeneko, thunder god, wind god
• A compilation of the yōkai view of the Fūjin-Raijin type
• One of the visual sources of modern Yōkai Watch, Princess Mononoke, etc.

3. Animals

• Dogs, cats, birds, fish, insects, horses, elephants, lions, tigers
• Also includes imaginary animals (baku, kirin, dragons)
• Draws the skeleton, muscles, movement of animals based on scientific observation

4. Plants

• Cherry, pine, bamboo, plum, orchid, wisteria, chrysanthemum
• Drawing methods for leaves, flowers, trunks
• Encyclopedic coverage of the four-season plants

5. Architecture and Landscape

• Shrines, temples, castles, town houses, farmhouses
• Structural depiction of roofs, pillars, balustrades
• Ways to draw mountain-water landscape (clouds, water, rocks)

6. Tools of Daily Life

• Kitchen tools, farm tools, weapons, instruments
• How to use tools (drawn combined with figures)
• Visual record of the material culture of Edo

7. Waves, Water, Clouds

• Encyclopedia of water expression
• The wave form of Kanagawa Oki Namiura is the culmination of the water-drawing methods of Hokusai Manga
• Over 100 ways to draw clouds

As a How-to-Draw Textbook

The design philosophy of Hokusai Manga is “you can imitate what you see.”

• Monochrome (ink and light ink) so as not to be confused by color
• Clear distinction between outline and shading
• Stepwise drawing method — some figures show the order: skeleton → filling in flesh → clothing
• Changes of viewpoint — the same thing drawn from front, side, and oblique for comparison

This is the prototype of modern How to Draw books. Hokusai did not hoard the technique of drawing as a “secret art,” but was also an educator who made it public.

The Word “Manga”

The word “manga” existed before Hokusai:

• A Chinese painting term — “man” = leisurely/uneven, “ga” = picture
• In mid-Edo Japanese too, “manga” = pictures drawn freely
• Before Hokusai, Kuwagata Keisai had also published similar picture handbooks like Ryakuga-shiki (1795) and Chōjū Ryakuga-shiki

Hokusai’s naming it “manga” was:

• To spread it as one style of picture handbook
• Also containing a sense of humility: “this is not a serious painting”
• Actually an extremely well-finished sketch collection

From the Meiji era on, satirical pictures and caricatures in newspapers and magazines came to be called “manga,” and eventually this became the etymological source of the 20th-century narrative manga.

Leak to Europe

The Beginning of “Being Found” — Ceramics Buffering

In the second half of the 19th century, as Japanese Arita and Imari ceramics were exported to Europe, used ukiyo-e prints and picture-books were inserted as buffering material.

In 1856, the Paris printmaker Félix Bracquemond discovered a copy of Hokusai Manga used as ceramic packaging. This delivered a shock to the European art world.

The Fuse of Japonisme

• Bracquemond introduced Hokusai Manga to painter friends
• Manet, Degas, Monet and others studied Hokusai Manga
• The Paris dealer Siegfried Bing opened a specialist ukiyo-e store and published reprints of Hokusai Manga
• The impressionists absorbed from Hokusai Manga their use of line, flat composition, and cut-out viewpoint

Influence on Degas (1834-1917)

• Sketches of ballet and combat movement in Hokusai Manga
• Sense of form in Degas’s ballet-dancer series
• Composition that cuts figures at an oblique angle

Rodin (1840-1917)

• The sculptor Rodin also loved Hokusai Manga
• Said “Hokusai is a genius comparable to Michelangelo”

Connection to 20th-Century Japanese Manga

Modern Japanese manga was developed directly under the influence of Western satirical pictures and comic strips of the Meiji-Shōwa era. But Hokusai Manga is a far ancestor of Japanese manga in these respects:

1. Expression of Motion

• Action drawing of combat, swordplay, sports
• The ground of modern shōnen manga’s action depiction
• Tezuka Osamu treasured Hokusai Manga

2. Drawing of Animals and Yōkai

• Mizuki Shigeru’s yōkai and Toriyama Akira’s dragon designs are the lineage of Edo yōkai pictures and Hokusai Manga
• Indirect influence also on the yōkai visuals of Jujutsu Kaisen and Demon Slayer

3. Precise Description of Artisans and Daily Life

• Precision of Edo genre depiction
• Reference source for the background depiction of modern historical manga (Onihei Hankachō, Vagabond, etc.)

That is, Hokusai Manga is a far ancestor of both the word “manga” and the visual grammar of manga.

Modern Evaluation of Hokusai Manga

Position in modern academic and art circles:

Museums of the World

• Museum of Fine Arts Boston — houses all 15 volumes complete
• Metropolitan Museum of Art — houses main volumes
• British Museum — houses main volumes
• Within Japan, the Sumida Hokusai Museum (opened 2016, Tokyo)

A Frequent Theme of Exhibitions

• Hokusai Manga exhibitions are held regularly around the world
• Especially treated as a core work of Japonisme exhibitions

Reprints and Republications

• Iwanami Bunko, Chūkō Shinsho, library-size complete 15-volume reprints
• A practical picture handbook even for aspiring modern painters

Other Picture Handbooks by Hokusai

Beyond Hokusai Manga, Hokusai left many picture handbooks:

• Ryakuga Hayashinan (1812) — easy drawing method
• Hokusai Shashin Gafu (1814) — sketch collection of flower-and-bird painting
• Ehon Saishiki-tsū (1824) — textbook of color
• Fugaku Hyakkei (1834-49) — 100 pictures of Fuji
• Gahon Azuma Asobi (1802) — picture book of famous places in Edo

Combining these, more than a third of Hokusai’s lifetime works are picture handbooks. Hokusai was both a painter and an educator of painting.

From This Article to the Next

In the same era as Hokusai, there was another master of landscape painting. Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858). Hiroshige, 37 years younger than Hokusai, was inspired by Hokusai’s Fugaku Sanjūrokkei, but walked an entirely different path of landscape painting with Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi. Against Hokusai’s boldness and innovation, Hiroshige’s lyricism and serenity. The next article traces Hiroshige’s life and Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi.