Read Katherine's response to the Japan Earthquake here
Listen to Katherine talk to Shelagh Rogers on CBC's The Next Chapter (Nov 15th, 2010 Episode)
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A companion website to the novel. Historical background, source material, and images from the work of Japanese printmaker Hokusai and his daughter Oei.
Detail from Three Women Playing Musical Instruments by Katsushika Oei, Museum of Fine Arts Boston
"I suspected there was more to this silenced and subdued woman than history allowed. But I did not know the extent to which O-ei’s secret is the secret of Hokusai himself. I might have given up if she hadn’t kept speaking to me. As my research continued I found a surprising truth. Now I understand what was at stake and why it hadn’t been told." - Katherine Govier
Author’s Note
The e-volume of The Ghost Brush includes the extended version of the novel; in it the 19th century story of Katsushika Oei, Hokusai’s daughter, is wrapped in a contemporary quest.
A Toronto woman writer named Rebecca becomes determined to unearth the great, lost woman artist. She travels, digs in museums, and encounters characters who help her uncover the bones.
This story-within-the story reveals my process. It about history itself—who creates it, who fears it, by what means a person is left out of it, and by what means she might be restored.
From the start I have felt that the search for Oei is a part of her story. Now the extended e-book has offered a fitting form.