Hokusai, one of the most famous of the ukiyo-e artists, left fifteen small volumes of manga (sketches). Selections from them were chosen by James Michener and gathered together, along with his commentary, in this volume, published in 1958 by Charles E. Tuttle Company.

Mine is a first edition. Although bound western-style, the pages, as in a Japanese binding, have the folds at the fore-edge. It is bound in a silk cloth, with Japanese paper endsheets, and has a Japanese title strip (on the front cover) in addition to the English title on the spine. I created a wrapper for it covered in grass green unryu, lined with a thin white paper with green leaf inclusions, with bone closures.

Michener was a dedicated collector of Japanese art (his collection is now the James A. Michener Collection, Honolulu Academy of Art), and his commentary is both scholarly and enlightening.