This volume includes full-color reproductions of drawings and woodblock prints by Japan's most beloved artist. These landscapes?including his famous views of Mount Fuji? portraits of lovers and kabuki actors, nature and animal illustrations, as well as scenes of daily life in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Japan reveal the artist's genius for rendering a wide variety of subjects. Matthi Forrer discusses in his essay Hokusai's life and lasting popularity while placing his work within the context of Japanese society and the work of his contemporaries. AUTHOR: MATTHI FORRER is curator of the Japanese Department at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, Germany. His is also the author of Hiroshige: Prints and Drawings (Prestel) 126 colour ,28 b/w illustrations