The First Volume of Hokusai Manga

Hokusai stayed with the artist Maki Bokusen in Nagoya in 1812. Nagoya’s account associates that visit with hundreds of sketches that became the basis of a new printed collection. In 1814, Eirakuya Tōshirō published the first volume of Hokusai Manga.

Its pages brought figures, animals, plants, objects and scenes into a drawing book. The title referred to varied sketches, rather than a continuing comic narrative in the modern sense. A printed model could be consulted by learners beyond the immediate circle that had watched Hokusai work; publication changed how the drawings could be encountered and copied.

Further volumes followed. The series eventually reached fifteen, with its last volume appearing in 1878, decades after Hokusai’s death. That sequence includes decisions by later publishers and compilers. The first volume’s success began an extended publishing history, while the complete fifteen-volume set cannot be treated as a single book Hokusai personally finished in 1814.