Hello all.
The preamble:
Beginning at square number 1 and reading clockwise, the unclued perimeter gives the name of a work featuring DOUBLE CRESTS, followed by the title of the series of which it is part. In two across clues, seven consecutive letters must be removed before solving, potentially with spaces adjusted. Each sequence can be rearranged to show the nature of one of the crests. In three down clues a word must be removed before solving. Read in clue order the first and last letters give the nature of the work. Solvers must highlight the name of the creator in the grid (seven cells). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; 9 is in Collins.
I didn’t worry at all about the end game until after the grid was full. With the clues solved I anagrammed the extra letter sequences in the acrosses to give our two crests, VOLCANO and TSUNAMI. I now extracted the first and last letters from the extra words in down clues to find the unlikely-looking UKIYO-E, confirmed in Chambers as “a Japanese style of painting and print-making flourishing between the 17c and 19c, typically depicting scenes from everyday life”.
Off I went to our favourite online encyclopaedia to investigate ukiyo-e works and complete the perimeter. Speeding up the process by searching in the page for likely words (“six” did the trick), I identified the work and the series of which it is part:
THE GREAT WAVE OFF KANAGAWA from THIRTY-SIX VIEWS OF MOUNT FUJI
Finally, in the grid I located and highlighted the artist:
HOKUSAI
Thanks to Luxor for a fun and culturally enlightening puzzle.
If there is a setter’s blog for this puzzle it will be available after 9am here.
| # | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | |||
| Across | |||
| 8a | OVOID | Geometrical figure round empty space (5) | |
| O (round) + VOID (empty space) | |||
| 10a | BORNEO | Coming from the east purloin invented language for island (6) | |
| Going right to left (coming from the east) ROB (purloin) + NEO (invented language) | |||
| 11a | UNKENNEL | Turns kale evenly over pasta (not soft) in free chow perhaps? (8) | |
| Even letters of (… evenly) tUrNs KaLe around (over) [p]ENNE (pasta) without (not) P (soft) | |||
| 12a | CORF | Short dress on the counter in basket (4) | |
| Lacking the last letter (short) FROCk (dress) reversed (on the counter) | |||
| 13a | TUNED | Fan upset electronic device originally working smoothly (5) | |
| NUT (fan) bakwards (upset) + initials of (… originally) Electronic Device | |||
| 14a | NARD | Hastened around dead matweed (4) | |
| RAN (hastened) backwards (around) + D (dead) | |||
| 17a | TYSTIES | Obligations to follow dwarf breeds dismissing ordinary arctic seabirds (7) | |
| TIES (obligations) to follow T[o]YS (dwarf breeds) removing (dismissing) O (ordinary) | |||
| 19a | MUSAK | Continuous flow of air’s awful at first doused in strong scent (5) | |
| Awful at first inside (doused in) MUSK (strong scent) | |||
| 21a | NEAT | Trim brown backing hiding base (4) | |
| TAN (brown) backing surrounding (hiding) E (base) | |||
| 23a | INERTIA | Idleness at home certain to be exposed when start of action’s postponed (7) | |
| IN (at home) + cERTAIn removing outer letters (to be exposed) when the first letter of (start of) Action is moved later (postponed) | |||
| 26a | APRON | Conveyor belt blocked by returning seamen or passengers (5) | |
| The answer is hidden in (blocked by) backwards (returning) seameN OR PAssengers | |||
| 27a | ORRISES | B[ust main ]looms over front of ruined towers (7) | tsunami |
| O (over) + the first letter of (front of) Ruined + RISES (looms) | |||
| 28a | ALMA | Male in festivity avoided by good dancer (4) | |
| M (male) in [g]ALA (festivity) without (avoided by) G (good) | |||
| 29a | MESSY | Partially reframes system in disarray (5) | |
| Partially refrMES SYstem | |||
| 30a | AMATING | Once upon a time daunting old woman repelled horrible giant (7) | |
| MA (old woman) reversed (repelled) + an anagram of (horrible) GIANT | |||
| 34a | MATT | Punch flooring leader of thugs (4) | |
| MAT (flooring) + the first letter of (leader of) Thugs | |||
| 37a | ARAME | Edible seaweed in afternoon noodle soup unfinished (5) | |
| A (afternoon) + RAMEn (noodle soup) without its last letter (unfinished) | |||
| 38a | OATH | Expression of surprise involving a tense appeal to God (4) | |
| OH (expression of surprise) containing (involving) A and T (tense) | |||
| 39a | COLD SLAW | Spooner’s traded part of crab salad (8, two words) | |
| A spoonerism of SOLD (traded) CLAW (part of crab) | |||
| 40a | SCUTES | Stews regularly concealing sliced stale French bread (6) | |
| StEwS regularly around (concealing) CUT (sliced) | |||
| 41a | SLEET | Icy surface in Detroit as dodgy character reversed [cool van] in street (5) | volcano |
| EEL (dodgy character) reversed in ST (street) | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | TENTY | Glaswegian’s cautious score lacking weight (5) | |
| T[w]ENTY (score) lacking W (weight) | |||
| 2d | EVENT | Books the night before leading performance (5) | |
| NT (books) with EVE (the night before) going first (leading) | |||
| 3d | RINDERPEST | Skin blisters not starting with temperature in disease affecting herd (10) | |
| RIND (skin) + hERPES (blisters) without the first letter (not starting) + T (temperature) | |||
| 4d | EDEN | Cave beneath English garden (4) | |
| DEN (cave) beneath E (English) | |||
| 5d | TOUR | Recalled group out now and then for spell of active service (4) | |
| Reversed (recalled) gRoUp OuT, alternate letters (now and then) | |||
| 6d | ANOA | One ancient conservationist snubbed buffalo (4) | |
| A (one) + NOAh (ancient conservationist) on removal of the last letter (snubbed) | |||
| 7d | VERVAIN | Medicinal herb pruned so without real worth (7) | |
| With the end removed (pruned), VERy (so) + VAIN (without real worth) | |||
| 9d | ONEIDAS | Two singletons rejected forlorn US natives (7) | |
| ONE and I (two singletons) + reversed (rejected) SAD (forlorn) | |||
| 15d | ABNORMALLY | Oddly [unpick] a past euphemism surrounding convention (10) | uk |
| A + BALLY (past euphemism) surrounding NORM (convention) | |||
| 16d | DURRA | Millet is artist behind withdrawal of reddish tones earlier (5) | |
| RA (artist) after (behind) a reversal of (withdrawal of) RUD (reddish tones earlier) | |||
| 18d | SAIRS | South American first uncovered flavours of Scotland (5) | |
| SA (South American) + fIRSt missing outer letters (uncovered) | |||
| 20d | STYLI | Pen 51 points for creating records (5) | |
| STY (pen) + LI (51) | |||
| 22d | TUISM | Trite statement forgetting rule in reference to interests of another (5) | |
| T[r]UISM (trite statement) omitting (forgetting) R (rule) | |||
| 24d | EN GARDE | [Initially] angered about warning of attack (7, two words) | iy |
| ANGERED anagrammed (about) | |||
| 25d | PREFACE | Twisted cap free to open (7) | |
| An anagram of (twisted) CAP FREE | |||
| 31d | TASER | Stunner swears at intervals in the wake of hollow trauma (5) | |
| SwEaRs at intervals after (in the wake of) TraumA without inner letters (hollow …) | |||
| 32d | NEATH | Locally below new ground disregarding river (5) | |
| N (new) + EA[r]TH (ground) leaving out (disregarding) R (river) | |||
| 33d | ETUI | Case for [offshore] sewer’s quite unorthodox, no question! (4) | oe |
| An anagram of (… unorthodox) [q]UITE with no Q (question) | |||
| 35d | APEX | Point of tape and text unveiled (4) | |
| Minus outer letters (… unveiled) tAPe and tEXt | |||
| 36d | TOSS | Informally discuss Tailless Dog Society (4) | |
| Missing its last letter (tailless) TOSa (dog) + S (society) | |||