Saluti & Baci - Graphic Days
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HOKUSAI ET LE FUJISAN
Text: Eva Bensard
Illustrations: Daniele Catalli
Éditions Amaterra, Lyon 2022
Où le trouverDove trovarlo
MoreThe mountain itself does the talking.
Fujisan, Japan's sacred peak, tells the life of Katsushika Hokusai, the "old man mad about drawing" who portrayed it for seventy years, from near and far: behind the Great Wave, at dawn and at dusk, under snow and in the storm. The tone is admiring and affectionate, and makes Hokusai a man close at hand more than a monument: the journeys, the pupils, the modest home shared with his daughter, the stubborn search for a better drawing.
The story closes on the master's last painting, a dragon rising through the clouds above Mount Fuji. "I like to think that dragon is him," says the mountain.Process
My illustrations are an open homage to ukiyo-e: a fine line, colours now muted and now vivid, and the large format used like a printmaker's sheet.
The colours are built up following the logic of Mokuhanga, the Japanese technique of water-based woodblock printing behind Hokusai's own prints. Each colour is treated as a separate block and laid down in sequence, from the palest tones to the darkest, with the line drawing arriving last to hold the image together. The soft gradations recall bokashi, the hand-wiped shading of the printers, and the white of the page is left to work as light.Editions
- French (original edition): Hokusai et le Fujisan, Éditions Amaterra, "L'autre histoire" series, 4 March 2022. Hardcover, 52 pages, 26 × 33 cm. ISBN 9782368562697
- Italian: Hokusai e il Fujisan, L'ippocampo Ragazzi, 29 September 2022. Hardcover, 56 pages. ISBN 9788867227495
- French audio version on Storyplay'r
- Prix Amerigo Vespucci Jeunesse 2022, Festival International de Géographie, Saint-Dié-des-Vosges
- Prix Atout Lire 2023
- Prix Vély'book 2024, Médiathèque de Vélizy: best illustration and special jury prize
- La Grande Parade, Sylvie Gagnère, 8 April 2022: "Les illustrations sont à la hauteur du sujet, en un vibrant hommage au maître"
- Ricochet: book page and review
- Ainsi lisent les nuages: Hokusai, le Fujisan et la Grande vague
- Saint-Dié Info, October 2022: Prix Amerigo Vespucci Jeunesse