Odori hitori geiko 踊独稽古

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Commentary by Ann Yonemura

Posted November 2014

Although Hokusai is best known for his painting manuals (edehon), among his illustrated guides (tehon) to acquiring specialized skills, he also designed a few books on other subjects. Published in 1815, Odori hitori geiko taught the movements of popular kabuki dances as performed by actors of the renowned Ichikawa Danjūrō lineage. Ichikawa Danjūrō VII (1791–1859) wrote the preface, and one sequence shows his famous “cold water-seller’s dance” (hiyamizu-uri), featuring an actor wearing a jacket emblazoned with three concentric squares, the distinctive Ichikawa school crest.

Hokusai’s depicted poses and gestures simply but accurately, and he illustrated different types of movements in each of the book’s four sections. Note, for example, the forceful leg lifts and aggressive leaping motions of the evil spirit who wears a circular mask bearing the character aku, meaning evil.

Hokusai’s interest in kabuki began during his apprenticeship with Katsukawa Shunshō (1726–1792), who specialized in prints of actors. Watching kabuki performances clearly enhanced Hokusai’s ability to illustrate poetry and narratives with dramatic and memorable compositions. The engaging and animated human figure sketches populating his phenomenally successful Manga series, which was in its early period of publication, drew upon his exceptional ability to capture a seemingly infinite variety of activities in a few lines. This abbreviated style of illustration was known as ryakuga, a term that is printed to appear on the folded edge of each sheet of this dance instruction manual. Volumes 2 and 3 of the Manga series appeared in the same year as this dance manual.

Selected reading:

Jack Hillier, The Art of Hokusai in Book Illustration (London: Sotheby Parke-Bernet Publications; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), pp. 133, 138–39.

Copies in other collections:

National Institute of Japanese Literature

Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden (360-4640)

Odori hitorigeiko