Fascinating!

Considering the price we paid for this (including support for the shop, the videos and the actual print once finished), what a bargain!

I own a lithography of the Wave and I'm now chasing every single "tamari", leading to the obvious conclusion that it's a poor quality work... :(

One more reason to be waiting for this print!

Dave, very interesting points regarding tamari and line work. Would it make sense when studying these lines to refer back to other Hokusai's b&w drawings of such subjects ? Since back in those days the final print was the sum work of three men (artist, carver & printer) each one could account for slight variations to the original line work. Perhaps after reviewing proof prints Hokusai would also make slight changes to line thicknesses, etc. Who would have final approval on the quality of the finish print ? The artist or the publisher ? Perhaps a publisher in a rush to meet demand would allow poor quality work to leave the shop.

If Hokusai's b&w drawings show great detailed line work and a steady hand you would think that these 'errors' you are seeing were not intended to be part of the design but rather the result of carver/printer "interpretation".

The 'final approval' stage was nothing at all to do with the designers; they were long out of the picture at that stage. Remember, none of this stuff was 'art'; it was just commercial printing, just like a newspaper would be today. The designers handed in sketches, which were cleaned up and organized by specialists in the publisher's outfit. There are a fair number of these things in the collection of the V&A museum in London, and one thing things on my 'to do' list is to use their items to really show people how the print process was a group mass production setup, with the designer providing very little beyond the initial sketches ...