HOKUSAI, Katsushika (1760-1849). Hokusai manga (Random sketches by Hokusai), illustrated books, color woodcuts, vol. 5, illustrations of architectural and mythological subjects with brief commentary in Japanese, mounted Japanese style right to left, re-bound minus original paper covers, now in paper-board covers applied with black silk, further applied with circular and rectangular mother-of-pearl plaques engraved with Chinese scenes, colophon dated 1875.12.14 and with name of artist Katsushika Hokusai and publisher Katano Toshiro, Tokyo; vol. 7, illustrations of landscapes with brief commentary in Japanese, mounted Japanese style right to left, re-bound minus original paper covers, now in paper-board covers applied with black silk, further applied with open-work oval silver medallion of two dragons confronting a sacred jewel in clouds, colophon dated 1875.12.14 and with name of artist Katsushika Hokusai and publisher Katano Toshiro, Tokyo; vol. 12, illustrations of humorous scenes, with brief commentary in Japanese, mounted Japanese style right to left, re-bound minus original paper covers, now in paper-board covers applied with black silk worked with gold-wrapped threads in a design of a leopard, clouds, and waves and mounted with a gilt-metal repousse plaque of dragons with green-enamelled longevity and good fortune Chinese characters and with gold-wrapped silk cords, colophon re-mounted upside down, dated 1875.12.14 and with name of artist Katsushika Hokusai and publisher Katano Toshiro, Tokyo-each spotted, lightly soiled, lightly stained, faded, some pages missing from beginning and ends of vols. Hokusai manga (Random sketches by Hokusai), 15 illustrated books, color woodcuts, with captions in Japanese, trimmed to image borders and laid down on thick, gold-flecked paper in 3 quarter-Morocco albums, mounted album style, right to left, original paper covers and random pages at beginning and ends of re-bound books missing, various editions First album: vol. 1, illustrations crowded with small figures, animals, birds, trees and water, no colophon, n.d.; vol. 2, illustrations of phoenixes and dragons, nature studies, religious and historical figures, no colophon, n.d.; vol. 3, illustrations of rice culture, wrestling and dancing, mythological figures, nature studies, no colophon, n.d.; vol. 4, illustrations of nature studies, swimmers, monks, mythological figures, no colophon, n.d.; vol. 5, illustrations of architectural and mythological subjects, colophon dated 1816 and with name of artist Katsushika Hokusai and publishers Kadomaruya Jinsuke, Takegawa Tobei, Hanabusaya Heikichi, Edo, Eirakuya Toshiro, Nagoya-each lightly soiled, lightly stained, faded Second album: vol. 6, illustrations of games, horsemanship, mythological figures, no colophon, n.d., with publishers as vol. 5 above; vol. 7, illustrations of landscapes, no colophon, n.d., with publishers as vol. 5 above; vol. 8, illustrations of architectural and mythological subjects, weaving machines, acrobats, an elephant, fat and thin men, small landscapes, no colophon, n.d.; vol. 9, illustrations of historical and mythological subjects, fat men, technical drawings, no colophon, n.d.; vol. 10, illustrations of humorous, legendary and ghost scenes, no colophon, n.d.--each lightly soiled, lightly stained, faded Third album: vol. 11, illustrations of wrestlers, calligraphers, guns, no colophon, n.d.; vol. 12, illustrations of humorous scenes, no colophon, n.d.; vol. 13, illustrations of landscapes, animals, men at work, no colophon, n.d.; vol. 14, illustrations of landscapes and animals, no colophon, n.d.; vol. 15, illustrations of landscapes, games, animals, flowers, fish, historical subjects, colophon dated 1878.9.1 and with name of artist Katsushika Hokusai and publisher Katano Toshiro-each lightly soiled, lightly stained, faded Together with a letter dated 1927.4.4 discussing Hokusai's Manga from Laurence Binyon, Keeper in the Department of Oriental Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, and with 3 reference books including Michener, James A. The Hokusai Sketchbooks/Selections from the Manga (Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1958), and two copies of Ichitaro Kondo, English text by Elise Grilli, Hokusai, Kodansha Library of Art, no. 1 (Rutland, Vermont and Tokyo, Japan: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1960) 23 x 16cm., vols. 5, 7, 12, each approx. 26.4 x 37cm., quarter-Morocco albums, each approx. As the Hokusai scholar Richard Lane remarks, "In this series of 15 volumes, designed from around 1813-through his final years, Hokusai produced a veritable pictorial encyclopedia of Far Eastern life and legend. The series was originally intended as a set of copybooks for art students but soon made the artist's name known throughout Japan and, eventually, throughout the world." Lane, Richard. Images from the Floating World: The Japanese Print. Including an Illustrated Dictionary of Ukiyo-e. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons; London and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. Reprinted New York: various imprints, 1982, 1984, et seq. James A. Michener notes in his book The Hokusai Sketchooks, included in this lot, that volume 12 was the favorite of the Manga volumes in Europe with its powerful content and probing style. (9)