Picture Book Popular Three Kingdoms (Volume 1 and 2)

Author: (Japanese) Katsushika Hokusai
Publisher:
Publication Date: April 1, 2003
Features: After the Popular Three Kingdoms (Fūzoku San Kong Chi) had beened for nearly 150 years, it was revived in the Tenpō era (1830–1843) with the illustrated Picture Book Popular Three Kingdoms. The term "picture book" refers to what is now commonly known as an illustrated edition, a popular genre during the Edo period. Its artistic style was ukiyo-e, initially used for children's book illustrations, later becoming a pastime for scholars and literati, and its content expanded beyond early childhood literature. The Picture Book Popular Three Kingdoms reorganized the original 50 volumes into eight parts and 75 volumes, with the text further corrected by Ichiya Chitade. The first, second, and third parts were published in 1836 (Tenpō 7), and the final part appeared in 1841 (Tenpō 12), by which time China's doors had been forced open by foreign invaders and had entered modern society. The development of Japanese picture books reached its peak in the Tenpō era, coinciding with advancements in woodblock printing and the emergence of colored illustrations. As a result, some of the illustrations in the Picture Book Popular Three Kingdoms are also colored. According to the publication's credits, nearly 400 illustrations in this picture book were drawn by Katsushika Hokusai, who was the pseudonym of the renowned ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). Therefore, it is generally believed that the work was created by Hokusai himself. However, Hokusai often bestowed his pseudonyms on his highly skilled disciples. Through research by the Japanese scholar Suzuki Jūzō, it has been determined that the Katsushika Hokusai who illustrated the Picture Book Popular Three Kingdoms was not Hokusai himself but his disciple (Suzuki referred to him as "Katsushika Hokusai II"). Despite this, the illustrations in the Picture Book Popular Three Kingdoms remain exquisite.