Hokousaï / L'art japonais au XVII Siècle

The volume traces the life and career of a major ukiyo-e artist, describing his apprenticeships, frequent name changes and the gradual formation of a personal, naturalistic style rooted in earlier Chinese models. It catalogs a vast and varied output—actor prints, illustrated popular tales, color nishiki-e, erotic images and engraved model-books—and documents technical experiments with tools and unconventional techniques, his work as a teacher, and the circulation of his art at home and to foreign visitors, including episodes of export and official restriction; biographical narrative is interlaced with critical description of methods and genres he practiced.