Author: Peter Morse

Publisher/Date: Braziller, 1989, 1st US, NAP Retail $95.00

Format/Condition: NEW large hardcover book is in fine condition. Dust jacket is in near fine condition. 222 pages, measures 14×10 inches

Description: A highly literate man with a lifelong affinity for books, 19th-century Japanese artist Hokusai was well equipped to appreciate the subtleties of the works included in the One Hundred Poets anthology, a body of literature integral to Japanese art and culture since the 13th century.

Not content to render simple illustrations, the artist looked for ways to convey the work’s ambiguous language and layers of meaning on themes of nature, the seasons, and love. Thus Hokusai only completed 27 prints, and his drawings and designs for another 62 images were ignored until the modern era.

In this handsome 14×10-inch edition, with 41 color plates and 70 black and white illustrations, Peter Morse examines the series in the context of Hokusai’s work. A connoisseur of Japanese prints at work on a catalog raisonné of Hokusai, Morse provides a detailed summary of the poetry and an interpretation of the illustration in his commentaries.