Hokusai [Hardcover]

Rizzoli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 1988

First American edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This large, lavishly illustrated book chronicles the long career of Hokusai, the late 18th- and early 19th-century Japanese artist well known in the West for his paintings and woodblock prints. Included are a 19th-century French text on Hokusai by Edmond de Goncourt and a modern text by Dutch museum curator Forrer, which restates, amplifies, or corrects de Goncourt's information. The two texts, printed in different typefaces, are intercut for an unusual effect. De Goncourt's text is the livelier of the two, but Forrer has the benefit of subsequent Hokusai scholarship. Appended scholarly aids such as chronologies and lists of Hokusai's name changes and major pupils will best serve the needs of specialists, but the illustrations will be captivating to a wide audience and the texts, if a bit cumbersome, are still accessible to general readers.
- Kathryn W. Finkelstein, M.Ln., Cincinnati
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 399 pages
• Publisher: Rizzoli (December 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0847809897
• ISBN-13: 978-0847809899
• Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 9.8 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,238,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was hoping for, June 28, 2005

By 

wiredweird "wiredweird" (Earth, or somewhere nearby) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hokusai (Hardcover)

What it is: The most thorough biographical reference I know, by an 1890s French author, de Goncourt. It's been translated into English, with a few notes added by the modern author (Forrer). The text has many accompanying illustrations. Those include sketches and remarkable paintings on silk or paper. Quite a few will be unfamiliar to most viewers - they include unique objects (like the drawings) and many rare prints. In fact, some of the prints were only discovered recently, or so people thought until they were seen mentioned in de Goncourt's text.

What I hoped for: A collection of Hokusai's art that really shows the art. This is basically a history or biography. Only a handful of the reproductions are in color, but printed well in those few cases. The overwhelming majority of illustrations are black-and-white, often too small to see any detail. Many large ones have such uncertain focus that detail gets lost, too. The real purpose of the pictures, though was to support the text. The illustrations do that adequately, like visual signposts along the path of Hokusai's career.

If you're looking for a coffee-table set of Hokusai reproductions, give this one or two stars. The book is a biography, though, the best I know, and interesting in itself.

Still, it's not what I was hoping for.

//wiredweird