YOU ARE HOLDING
A BOOK FOR DRAWING AND DOODLING. IN IT, YOU’LL FIND PARTS OF JAPANESE PRINTS, MY OWN DRAWINGS, SOME WRITING, AND PLENTY OF ROOM FOR YOU TO COLOR, SKETCH, AND THINK.
Hokusai’s characters.
In my childhood bedroom, there hung a print of Hokusai’s “Ejiri in the Suruga Province”.
Every night, as I lay in bed falling asleep, I would relive the beauty and danger of the journey I took with Hokusai’s characters.
Woodblock printing, a technique that was common in Japan in the 18th and 19th centuries, allowed color picture to be made for cheap and in large quantities. The really popular pieces were distributed in the tens of thousands and cost about as little as a bowl of soup.
These prints depicted village life, renowned actors, beautiful women, sumo wrestlers, and nature.
If you or your parents would like to learn some more about life in Japan in the 19th century, you can find a list of paintings that I used at the back of this book, along with the names of their authors, and some other information on each item.
Yoi ryokou ni narimasuyou ni… That’s Japanese for “have a good trip.”