THE HOKUSAI SKETCHBOOKS

In 1814, when the great Japanese artist Hokusai ("The Old Man Mad About Drawing" as he called himself) was fifty-four, there appeared the first volume of his miscellaneous sketches and drawings called Manga. From then until his death at eighty-nine and for many years afterwards more volumes appeared, fifteen in all, comprising thousands of sketches of various sizes to upon almost every aspect of Japanese daily life, history, and landscape. Mr. Mi has selected 197 plates which are here reproduced full-size with an attempt, quite successful, to convey the original color and give the feel of the original binding. He provides an enthusiastic introduction. The facts he gives are valuable, but his appreciations of the plates, like his earlier book on Ukiyoe art, will misguide the unwary. The fact that the Manga, a minor work by a master of the second rank (so his contemporaries thought) can inspire such heady enthusiasm in a Western connoisseur, with bold comparisons to Rembrandt and da Vinci, is another testimony to the compelling power of the Ukiyoe print. This is a nice book to pore over at leisure.