Current Exhibition

  • Exhibition Plus
  • What's On

"Scenery on Both Banks of the Sumida River" and "Sketches by Hokusai"

Tue, December 9, 2025 - Sun, August 30, 2026
Term
December 9, 2025 - August 30, 2026
Open
Tuesday-Sunday
Closed
Every Monday
*Or if Monday is a national holiday or a substitute holiday, open Monday and closed the following Tuesday.
Hours
9:30-17:30 (last admission 5:00 pm)
Exhibition room
4th floor Exhibition Room
Organizers
Sumida City, The Sumida Hokusai Museum

Exhibition Overview

"Scenery on Both Banks of the Sumida River" is said to be the longest of Hokusai's original paintings. This work, which is about 7 meters long, is exhibited with high-resolution reproduction, allowing you to see the entire work in full-size, as well as watch a video commentary. "Sketches by Hokusai" is also famous as the works that inspired Japonism.
In this exhibition, in addition to the "Sketches by Hokusai and Hokusai's Art Books" corner, which displays about 10 original Hokusai's art books, including "Sketches by Hokusai", one original work selected each month from Hokusai's famous nishiki-e series, including "Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji," as "Masterpiece of the Month," and the exhibits will be changed monthly.
In the "Hokusai Manga and Other Browse Corner," about 15 full-size replicas of Hokusai's art books, including "Sketches by Hokusai," are on view. Please take a look!
 

Admission Fees

 
Individual
 Group
Adults
¥700
 ¥600
High School/Univ.Students
¥600
 ¥500
65 and over
¥600
 ¥500
Middle School students
¥200
 ¥100
Visitors with Disabilities
¥200
 ¥100
Children in primary school
 and younger
Free
 Free
  • Junior high, high school, and university students (including technical college, vocational school, and special training college students) will be requested to show student ID.
  • Adults 65 and over will be requested to show a document verifying age.
  • Persons with a certificate such as the following plus one accompanying person are admitted at a discount charge: physical disability, intellectual disability, rehabilitation, mentally handicapped health and welfare, atomic bomb victim health notebook, etc. (Please show your certificate at time of admission.)
  • Use of these tickets is limited to the day visitors view the exhibiions and allows you to see "Education Room—Discover Hokusai—".
  • For group visit, reservation in advance is required. See For Group Visitors.
  • For school group visits and field trip programs, reservation in advance is required. See For Teachers.
  • After tickets have been purchased, Changes and refunds cannot be made after . However, refunds will be made only in the event of a museum closure due to force majeure.

*Unauthorized reproduction or reuse of images is prohibited.

  • Exhibition
  • What's On
Exhibition Handout

Commemorating a Decade: Open the Drawing Manual—Sketches by Hokusai or Many More

Tue, March 17, 2026 - Sun, May 24, 2026
Term
March 17 - May 24, 2026
*Some exhibits are changed during the term.
Open
Tuesday-Sunday
Closed
Mondays (except May 4), and May 7
If Monday is a national holiday or substitute holiday, the Museum will be closed the following weekday.
Hours
9:30 am - 5:30 pm (last entry 5:00 pm)
Venue
3rd floor Exhibition Room
Organizers
Sumida City, The Sumida Hokusai Museum

Exhibition Overview

Edehon are drawing manuals designed for anyone who wants to study drawing. To demonstrate drawing techniques to a broad audience, these manuals were also published in the form of woodblock printed books. The ever popular Hokusai Manga, known as Sketches by Hokusai outside Japan, is one among many drawing manuals designed by Hokusai. Ranking with Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji as one of Hokusai's masterpieces, Sketches by Hokusai has been influential both in Japan and abroad. This exhibition displays woodblock printed manuals by Hokusai and his students, introducing the appeal of Sketches by Hokusai and other drawing manuals plus works that were influenced by them.
 

Composition and Highlights of the Exhibition

■Preface: Sketches by Hokusai in Our Time

Famous overseas, Sketches by Hokusai is one of many drawing manuals by Hokusai. First published in 1814, Sketches by Hokusai concluded with Vol. 15 in 1878, about thirty years after Hokusai's death. A longtime bestseller, the manual has been reprinted any number of times since then. As a matter of fact, copies of the manual sold today are still printed using traditional woodblocks dating back to the Edo period. We hope you will enjoy Sketches by Hokusai, a manual that is still in print today.

■Section 1: Hokusai's Unique Drawing Manuals

Since the publication of the first volume of My Nonsensical Picture Dictionary in 1810, Hokusai continued to publish one drawing manual after another to demonstrate his techniques. The manuals include single-stroke drawings, moji-e created by combining written characters, and other novel ways of teaching students to draw. In this section, we introduce drawing manuals, which are not just books of pictures.
　
Left: Katsushika Hokusai, Quick Guide to Drawing, Vol. 1, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (all terms)
Right: Katsushika Hokusai, A Book of New Patterns, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (all terms) 
 
Quick Guide to Drawing, Vol. 1 explains how to create detailed drawings based on the use of a compass and ruler to draw the general framework. A Book of New Patterns shows Kimono patterns designed by Hokusai.

■Section 2: Collections of Pictures as Drawing Manuals

The drawing manuals introduced in Section 1 teach students how to draw in detail, but other manuals are similar to collections of pictures in the sense that they only contain pictures for the student to copy. In those days, it was common practice to learn to draw by observing and copying models.
　
Left: Katsushika Hokusai, Painting Models by Hokusai, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (all terms)
Right: Katsushika Taito Ⅱ, Illustrated Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Vol. 3, Book. 5, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (all terms)
 
A student of Hokusai, Katsushika Taitō II depicted Sima Hui in Illustrated Popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Vol., Book 5, modeling his figure on Wu Zhishi from Hokusai’s drawing manual Painting Models by Hokusai.

■Section3: Illustrated Books as Drawing Manuals

It is difficult to come up with a strict definition of drawing manuals, but, in the context of this exhibition, a drawing manual refers to any of Hokusai's books described as drawing manuals in the preface, in the afterword, or in advertising texts, as introduced in Section 1 and Section 2.
For convenience’s sake, we refer to Confucian or moral textbooks illustrated by Hokusai as illustrated books rather than drawing manuals. Although these illustrated books were published for purposes other than providing manuals for drawing, they also provided models for drawing. This section introduces woodblock printed books other than illustrated popular fiction (kusazōshi), novels (yomihon), and other literary works that were used as drawing manuals.
　　　
Left: Wedgwood Plate with Designs from Sketches by Hokusai and Models for Letter Writing, Illustrated, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (all terms)
Middle (Left): Katsushika Hokusai, Models for Letter Writing, Illustrated, Vol. 1, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (Non-original work printed on panels will be on display throughout the period.)
Middle (Right): Katsushika Hokusai, Models for Letter Writing, Illustrated, Vol. 1, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (Non-original work printed on panels will be on display throughout the period.)
Right: Katsushika Hokusai, Sketches by Hokusai, Vol. 11, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (Non-original work printed on panels will be on display throughout the period.)
 
This octagonal plate by Wedgwood features designs rendered in gold on a powder blue ground.
The figure holding two brushes is a painter from Models for Letter Writing, Illustrated, Vol. 1, the figure with a bare upper body is a craftsman from Models for Letter Writing, Illustrated, Vol, 1, and the remaining two figures are based on the sumō figures in Sketches by Hokusai, Vol. 11. This is an example of how the patterns in Hokusai's illustrated books were used by a globally renowned manufacturer of fine china and porcelain.

■Section4: Sketches by Hokusai in Our Time

As mentioned in the preface, Sketches by Hokusai has been printed any number of times since the Edo period. This section traces the history of Sketches by Hokusai from the 1814 publication to the latest edition, printed in 2017. Find out how Sketches by Hokusai has transitioned from the Edo period to the present day.
　　
Left: Katsushika Hokusai, Sketches by Hokusai, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (all terms)
Middle: Morikawa Chikashige, Newly Published All Sorts of Horses, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (2nd term)
Right: Katsushika Hokusai, Sketches by Hokusai, Vol. 6, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (all terms)
 
Thought to be on public display for the first time in an exhibition anywhere in the world, this is an extremely valuable copy of Sketches by Hokusai with a colophon.
Some of the horses in the color print in the middle are based on Sketches by Hokusai, Vol.6.

■Section 5: Drawing Manuals by Students

Once they had built their own reputations, some of Hokusai's students also published drawing manuals. Some of their drawings are based on Hokusai's manuals. In other words, Hokusai's drawing manuals live on in the manuals created by his students. This section focuses on drawing manuals by Hokusai's students—in which we can see the influence of Hokusai's own drawing manuals.
　　
Left: Katsushika Hoku'un, Sketches by Hoku'un, Vol. 1, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (all terms)
Middle: Katsushika Hokusai, Sketches by Hokusai, Vol. 10, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (Non-original work printed on panels will be on display throughout the period.）
Right: Katsushika Hokusai, Sketches by Hokusai, Vol. 10, The Sumida Hokusai Museum (Non-original work printed on panels will be on display throughout the period.）
 
The picture on the left is a drawing manual by Katsushika Hoku'un, one of Hokusai’s students in Nagoya. Although the caption says ‘Vol.1’, only this first volume was ever published.
 

List of Works

List of Works

Admission Fee

 
Individual　
Group
Adults
¥1000
¥900
Students(High school, college)
¥700
¥600
65 and over
¥700
¥600
Students(Junior high)
¥300
¥200
Disabled visitors
¥300
¥200
Primary school and younger
Free
Free

Tickets are available online for specific dates and times.
Skip the line at reception by booking in advance at the link below.
Note: Availability is limited.
Official Online Ticket Site
・Junior high, high school, and university students (including technical college, vocational school, and special training college students) will be requested to show student ID.
・Adults 65 and over will be requested to show a document verifying age.
・Persons with a certificate such as the following plus one accompanying person are admitted at a discount charge: physical disability, intellectual disability, rehabilitation, mentally handicapped health and welfare, atomic bomb victim health notebook, etc. (Please show your certificate at time of admission.)
・Use of these tickets is limited to the day visitors view the exhibiions and allows you to see also "Education Room－Discover Hokusai－" and Permanent Exhibition Plus.
・For group visit, reservation in advance is required. See For Group Visit.
・For school group visits and field trip programs, reservation in advance is required. See For Teachers.
・After tickets have been purchased, Changes and refunds cannot be made after . However, refunds will be made only in the event of a museum closure due to inevitable force.

Exhibition Leaflet

Original leaflet filled with highlights of the exhibition will be sold from 17th March 2026.
Title Open the Drawing Manual—Sketches by Hokusai or Many More
Price ¥400 (tax included)
Full Color, A4 size, 12 pages in all
Release Date 17th March 2026
Location Museum Shop, 1F, Sumida Hokusai Museum
 
*Unauthorized reproduction or diversion of work-images is forbidden.