Even a small child, little Katsushika Oei, had always called her unusual, but very creative and eccentric father, "Old Man". Sometimes said with affection and sometimes said with derisiveness, he was always her "Old Man" as she had been born to him, his third daughter, when he was forty as a time in Japan where few people live past the age of 45.

Her father was the famous artist and printmaker Hokusai whose works were well known both in the much beleaguered artistic community in Edo (now present day Tokyo) and to the Dutch devils as equally determined to find out more about the Japanese and their lives as the shogun was to keep them away.

Carried on her father's shoulders as a child or taken with him into the brothels of Edo so he could paint the beautiful courtesans behind their lattices or enjoying a short walk, Oei saw every aspect of life and idolizing her father, quickly learned from him how to see the artistic picture in the ordinary. With her steady and gifted hand, she first learned to mix the paints, to fill in the colours in his drawings and then to make her own paintings and bring them to wondrous life.

Despite all their hardships and ups and downs in life, she was always the one he turned to as his favourite daughter, assistant, apprentice and caregiver. Often called "Ago-Ago" (Chin-Chin), Oei is as strong-willed and prominent in her opinions as her chin. Living in their untidy tenement room with almost constant family squabbles over her father's lack of interest in money, yet revered by artists as the famous North Star studio, Oei refuses to learn womanly skills from her mother and is the "girl who can paint, but cannot sew." But, can she survive or be accepted as an artist in this tightly controlled culture that insists on female submissiveness?

Set in 19th Century Japan, award winning author Katherine Govier has brought to life in rich and amazing colour and detail, a fascinating and highly evocative story about Oei, her famous father, and the hardships faced by women and artists during this highly unsettled and difficult times. For myself, I found the historical context in the Afterward section at the end of the novel almost as compelling as her fictionalized story that Govier so exquisitely imagines from so little historical fact and allows us to see from Oei's ever observant and knowing eyes. Knowing very little about Japanese art, I immediately had to Google to see if I could find some art work and was blown away by the beauty of the pictures of the actual works done by Oei, the better artist, and her more recognized and famous father, Hokusai.

Not only a brilliant researcher, Govier is also particularly adept at character development and one of the best parts of the book is seeing how Oei's perspective on life and her father changes as she grows older as well as with her relationship with Shino, a former regal Japanese lady reduced to being a courtesan at the whim of her husband. Through her, she learns some womanly skills that help her survive the harsh restrictions on life where women can so easily be set aside into a life of servitude or be killed without cause. This amazing book is such an incredible gem; it should not be missed by anyone! For Canadian fans, the book is published in Canada as "Ghost Brush". Check it out at http://theprintmakersdaughter.com!