Album of Sketches by Katsushika Hokusai and His Disciples

Album of Sketches by Katsushika Hokusai and His Disciples

Katsushika Hokusai

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The brush-inscribed text between the two roosters explains the odd dynamic of this work: A drawing of a real rooster coming to fight the wooden rooster made by Suminawa. (Suminawa ga tsukereru ki no niwatori makoto no niwatori kitaritekeru zu) This unsigned drawing is virtually identical to a woodblock-printed illustration published in the popular novel The Tale of the Craftsman of Hida (Hida no takumi monogatari, 1809), authored by Rokujuen Meshimori (1753–1830) and illustrated by Hokusai. The episode of the book represented here relates the story of the master carpenter Suminawa of Hida, who created a carved bird so lifelike that another bird mistook it for a real one. It is assumed that this is a preparatory drawing from which the hanshita-e (block drawing) was made.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Album of Sketches by Katsushika Hokusai and His DisciplesAlbum of Sketches by Katsushika Hokusai and His DisciplesAlbum of Sketches by Katsushika Hokusai and His DisciplesAlbum of Sketches by Katsushika Hokusai and His DisciplesAlbum of Sketches by Katsushika Hokusai and His Disciples

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.