Evgeniy Semenovich Steiner is a Japanese scholar, candidate of philological sciences, doctor of art history. Worked at the Pushkin Museum. A. S. Pushkin, taught and did research at universities in Moscow, Jerusalem, Tokyo, Yokohama, New York, Manchester and London. Since 2012, Professor at the School of Oriental Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow). Author of 15 books that were published in Russia, the USA, Great Britain and Germany. E. Steiner’s book “Hokusai’s Manga: An Encyclopedia of Old Japanese Life in Pictures” (St. Petersburg: Petersburg Oriental Studies, 2016, 4 vols.) received the “Book of the Year” and “Enlightener” awards in 2017 (in a special category). Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) is one of the most famous Japanese artists of the Edo period. Throughout his life, he published albums of engraved drawings called “Manga”. In fifteen issues with four thousand figures and motifs, Hokusai presented an encyclopedia of old Japan in pictures - from the gods and heroes of antiquity to contemporary amorous affairs, household utensils and various natural views. The book by Japanese scholar Evgeniy Steiner is a complete and detailed commentary on the Manga publication, which has no analogues in the world in terms of the completeness of its illustrations and historical comments. The author is convinced that cultural and historical explanation is absolutely necessary in many cases. “Hokusai’s manga,” although it is written not in hieroglyphs, but in “picture writing,” needs translation - from the language of Japanese historical and mythological stories, as well as foreign cultural realities of two hundred years ago. The book will become a reference book and will be of interest to all art lovers, enthusiasts of Japanese culture, as well as professional Japanese and Sinologists.
