Hokusai Manga Vol 1. Transmitting the Spirit, Revealing the Form of Things, (Denshin kaishu: Hokusai manga, shohen 傳神開手 北斎漫画初編)

This volume is the first published copybook in an eventual series spanning 15 volumes. Hokusai found inspiration for this when he traveled to Nagoya in the autumn of 1813 to visit Gekkōtei Bokusen (Princeton University Library). During his time there he created about 300 spontaneous images from the heavens to the earth and his personal theories of art (Princeton University Library). The subjects in this first book are varied from daily activities of people to plants to animals. The drawings found in each page related to each other and look like they all could be found in the space in time. The images themselves are relatively small with up to about 30 subjects per page. In this context I am defining subjects as one individual person or animal in a cluster of drawings. The drawings are mostly ink with some color to highlight certain aspects of the drawings. Due to the age of this Hokusai manga volume, the colors have faded greatly. In the example given, there are slight pink colors on the animals and shades of grey on the clothing. The line work is very thin, yet the drawings do not miss any details that define the subject.