Primary sourceBook1834

Random Sketches by Hokusai, Volume 12

Katsushika Hokusai · 1834

The twelfth volume of Hokusai's woodblock-printed sketchbooks, made in 1834, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Hokusai created this sketchbook volume in 1834, showing his everyday drawing practice.

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Photo of an open page from a Japanese book, mounted in a clear plastic sleeve. The upper page has vertical lines of black brush-written Japanese text inside a ruled border. The lower page is blank paper. A small handwritten paper label is attached at the right edge. — Katsushika Hokusai, Random Sketches, Volume 12, 1834. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

About this source

What it is

This is Volume 12 of Hokusai's sketchbooks, printed from woodblocks in 1834 during Japan's Edo period. It is an illustrated book made with ink and colour on paper, now kept at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Why it matters

Hokusai's sketchbooks captured everyday people, objects and scenes, reflecting his practice of constant observation and drawing. Such books spread his style widely and show the breadth of subjects he tackled beyond his famous landscape prints.

Look closer

What does the layout of the page, with text and blank space, tell you about how the book was made and used?
Why might a museum keep such a book carefully protected in a plastic sleeve?
What might sketchbooks like this reveal about an artist's working process?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Hokusai on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Woodcut print in blue, cream and tan tones of a huge curling wave with claw-like foam fingers rising over two boats full of rowers. Small Mount Fuji appears in the distance under a pale sky. Japanese calligraphy sits in a cartouche at upper left.

Painting

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The Great Wave off Kanagawa

Katsushika Hokusai · 1830

Woodblock print page from Hokusai Manga with Japanese characters. Two men carry loads on poles over their shoulders; the man on the right carries a large hanging sack. A child carries a basket on a pole, and a crouching figure with a basket sits in the lower center beside a large basket.

Painting

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Man with Filarial Elephantiasis

Katsushika Hokusai · 1834

Woodcut print in ink on paper showing a scene at a wooden outhouse. A samurai with two swords peers out from a window of the latrine building. Outside, a bald man carries a large wooden bucket on a pole, and another man crouches in the foreground. Japanese text and a signature appear in the margins.

Painting

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Samurai Visiting a Latrine

Hokusai Katsushika · 1834

Colour woodblock print of Mount Fuji with a red-brown peak streaked with white snow, under a deep blue sky filled with rows of white, layered clouds. Dark green slopes fill the lower foreground. A vertical title cartouche with printed characters sits at the upper left.

Painting

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Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

Katsushika Hokusai · c. 1830-1832

Woodblock print of a red-and-yellow rowing boat on a dark blue pond with lotus leaves. Several women in red and pink robes sit and kneel in the boat, one at the stern holding a long pole, others reaching toward the water. A green bank with bushes is at left, and a poem cartouche is at upper right.

Painting

Primary source

Women in a Rowing Boat on a Lotus Pond

Hokusai Katsushika

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