葛飾北齋 [Katsushika Hokusai] - 傳神開手：一筆畫譜 (全) [Denshin Kaishu: Ippitsu Gafu — Transmitting the Spirit, Revealing the Form of Things: - 1912-1912

傳神開手：一筆畫譜 (全) [Denshin Kaishu: Ippitsu Gafu — Transmitting the Spirit, Revealing the Form of Things: Picture Album of Drawings at One Stroke of the Brush, Complete Volume] - 葛飾北齋 [Katsushika Hokusai]

京都 / [Kyoto]: 芸艸堂 [Unsōdō] / Meiji 45 (February 1912). The colophon leaf documents that the copyright application was registered on December 22, Meiji 44 (1911), and this edition was formally printed and issued on February 11, Meiji 45 (1912) by the prominent Kyoto art publisher Unsōdō, under the publisher name Yamada Naojirō. [30] unnumbered leaves. 23.8cm x 16cm. Softcover bound in traditional Fukurotoji (pouch binding / stab-stitching) format with its original plain tan paper wrappers and a title label on the front cover.
Later edition of this complete single-volume edition (Zen) of Hokusai’s highly celebrated sketch repository. Originally published in Bunsei 6 (1823) by Nagoya publisher Eirakuya Tōshirō, this 1912 edition is a high-quality late-Meiji restrike issued from recut blocks by the premier Kyoto fine-art publisher Unsōdō. Bibliographically, the edition features classical cursive introductory prefaces, an inner title page visualizing a young art student kneeling in reverence before a hanging landscape scroll signed by Hokusai, and a fully authenticated 1912 publisher colophon page at the rear. Handmarked provenance script along the lower left edge (imp. T. IV. 1920 Nbr 18) points to an early 20th-century Western collection history.
Ippitsu Gafu represents a vital milestone in East Asian art instruction history. Hokusai was deeply inspired by the loose, single-stroke (ippokuga) dynamic ink concepts left behind in the drafts of the late Owari-based painter Niwa Kagei (Fukuzensai). Hokusai compiled and augmented those forms to showcase ryakuga-shiki (cursive/abbreviated drawing style). The book serves as a pedagogical reference manual, teaching art students, textile weavers, and lacquer craftsmen how to compress the spiritual essence of complex human movement, flora, and fauna into minimal, continuous, fluid sweeps of the brush.
The book is filled with expressive sketch-plates utilizing fine black block lineation overprinted with soft grey blocks and subtle secondary flesh and pale blue-grey highlights. Iconic minimalist compositions included here display a dense collection of cranes (Tsuru) captured in varying geometric stages of flight, bowing, and walking; sheets tracing the swimming paths of various pond turtles (Kame) from multiple angles; sheets of stylized courtesans (Bijin), street merchants, and travelers carrying paper lanterns; humorous character poses depicting street musicians, napping figures, and peasants bowing low; a tranquil, atmospheric coastal village seascape with thatched roofs and a silhouette of docked sailboats; and a technical final page displaying loose visual shorthand styles for mythical dragons, coins, scrolls, and lucky talismans.

Some wear, creasing, fingerprints and ink soiling on the wrappers. The upper outer edge of the back cover is a bit scuffed. Pen markings on the bottom left of the front cover. The front pastedown endpaper has some damage in the lower right part and has some water staining at the bottom. There are also glue remnants on the front pastedown endpaper. Some very small creasing of the outer corners throughout. Very little browning and spotting throughout. Please check the images, all pages are photographed. The illustrations are vibrant and the binding is solid. Overall, a well-preserved copy in very good condition.