photographEllis Tinios (Leeds): Hokusai manga in context

An introduction to popular publishing in the Edo period

Location: Beehive 2.21
Time/Date: 13th October 2011, 16:00 - 17:00

The woodblock printed books of illustrations produced in Japan in the Edo period (1615-1868) represent a remarkable achievement in terms of their technical perfection, broad range of styles, variety of subject matter, and beauty. No comparable sustained tradition of artistically significant printed illustrated books existed in China or the West. In the West, one of the best known — if imperfectly understood — of these books is the Hokusai manga. This lecture will consider the origins of the Hokusai manga, explain their place in Hokusai’s oeuvre and in Edo publishing, and explore their contents.

Dr Ellis Tinios, honorary lecturer in history at the University of Leeds (UK) and visiting researcher at Ritsumeikan University (Kyoto), has been engaged in the study of Japanese books for over thirty years. He is author of Japanese Prints: Ukiyo-e in Edo, 1615-1900 (British Museum Press, 2010).

Image: 'Wind' from volume 12 of Hokusai manga. 1834.
Private collection, image courtesy of the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University.

Published: 31st August 2011