This lavishly illustrated, outsized (17″ x 10″) guide brings in combination the ultimate top print collection of the prestigious Eastern artist Hokusai (1760-1849) and the Eastern poetry that impressed those gorgeous prints. Whether or not appearing semi-nude girls abalone divers being affected by their trap even as a male team of shrunk antique salts leers from a close-by boat, or the carefree rapture of a leisurely crew of women and men gazing cherry blossoms at their top, Hokusai captures, with drama and delicacy, chic and ridiculous states. The artist’s simplicity, although misleading, could also be exceptional: he illustrates a poem a few enthusiasts’ beach tryst with a magnificently enforcing but unadorned crusing vessel, its small window providing a coy glimpse of the lucky couple inside of. Every of the 111 colour prints (in addition to 41 black-and-white sketches of projected prints it appears by no means finished) is followed by way of the poem, in Eastern and English, a biographical word at the poet and by way of Peter Morse’s feedback on literary and creative goal and execution.
