Designer: Katsushika Hokusai | Carver: David Bull | Printer: Rei

Size: 11cm by 15cm | Enlargement | Shipping Code: [HC] ? | Currency: $ / £ / €

Price: $ 40.00£ 32.25€ 36.75

Description: This is another of the prints in the Mokuhankan catalogue which began life as a New Year print being sent to fans and collectors of our work. In late 2016 we were thinking of a suitable design to use for this purpose, and one of the staff members suggested that we take the opportunity to make a kind of homage to Katsushika Hokusai. When we were building our new shop in the Asakusa district of Tokyo, finances had been very tight, and we had been 'saved' by the fact that our reproduction of Hokusai's famous Great Wave design had been very well received by collectors of our work, selling very many copies, and providing enough revenue to get us through that difficult period.

At the insistence of the staff I had made a visit to Hokusai's grave - which is located just a few minutes walk from our shop - to make a small offering and give my thanks for his 'support', but they felt that this wasn't really enough, and when we stumbled across this image of an Edo-period entertainer on one page of the famous Hokusai Manga (sketchbooks), we decided to produce it as our New Year design for January of 2017.

The original Manga was done in very subdued colours, but we took the opportunity to make our print just a little bit more attractive, and we particularly tried to make sure that nobody could miss the Great Wave that our skilled magician could produce from his bare hands.

Do you think this was really possible?