Hokusai: Mountains and Water, Flowers and Birds

by Matthi Forrer, Katsushika Hokusai (Illustrator)

Now available again, this delightful selection of prints depicting nineteenth century Japan's natural beauty is a colorful introduction to the country's most beloved artist. The Japanese artist Hokusai spent the second half of his life sketching and painting with tremendous energy nearly everything he saw, and this book focuses on one of his most productive periods, when the artist was in his seventies. This book presents fifty works of the artist's astonishing oeuvre. It includes selections from his renowned series of woodblock prints, Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, including "In the Hollow of a Wave," "Shower below the Summit," and "South Wind at Clear Dawn." Also presented are images of flowers, waterfalls, bridges, birds, and fish, demonstrating the uniquely precise yet passionate quality of Hokusai's art. An expert on the artist's work, Matthi Forrer provides illuminating commentary on Hokusai's life and technique, offering insight into his enduring
popularity throughout the world.

Genres: Nonfiction, Art, Japan

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 24, 2004

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Hokusai: Mountains and Water, Flowers and Birds' is a lovely 2004 collection of Hokusai plates with an introduction/overview of the artist and his life by art historian Matthi Forrer.

Whilst the introductory text provides a basic biography of Hokusai, it's fairly uninspiring and feels somewhat dry and merely functional - clearly it's the Hokusai plates that quite rightly take centre stage here.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for a college essay and it was really helpful! It had lots of information about Hokusai’s background and inspiration though I felt like it didn’t have enough information on his actual art techniques etc.

[Alisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really like the layout of the book and the easy referencing to examples of his work and found it very informative about his life and work and social context.

[carolzinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In this way, focussing on his own interpretation of Western influence, Hokusai managed to integrate this into a Japanese vision of landscapes and nature prints which strike the Western viewer as utterly Japanese, and the Japanese as totally Western, even today."

[Mario · Rating 4 out of 5]

شرح و معرفی مجموعه ای از آثار پرآوازه‌ترین نقاش ژاپن کاتسوشیکا هوکوسای و نحوه پدید آمدن آن ها

[Beki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really liked details of Hokusai's work

[Cindy DavisClark · Rating 4 out of 5]

We are planning to see an exhibit about this artist’s work

[Harrison Large ラージ • ハリソン · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a very good collection of Hokusai's work, but for a book designed mainly to look at the art, there's a lot of white space, and many landscape pieces are made to fit a portrait page when really there's plenty of space to make the pieces landscape and just have the reader flip the book sideways.