(Shoshoku ehon) Shin hinagata （諸職絵本) 新鄙形

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Commentary by Ann Yonemura

Posted November 2014

The first part of Shoshoku ehon shin hinagata (Picture book of new patterns for various trades), published in 1836, focuses on architecture. Hokusai notes in the preface that, since builders keep their construction methods secret, he has included detailed pictures of buildings for the sake of artists who want to feature such structures in their pictures. He includes grids and circles to help them render the curvature of a roofline or the proper height and width of a gabled entrance. Hokusai also expressed his fascination with details of architecture in his earlier prints and book illustrations. His most famous print series, Fugaku sanjūrokkei (Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji), published in the early 1830s, features close-up views of architectural details, such as the roof of the Buddhist temple Honganji.

This volume begins with a portrait of an elegantly dressed master carpenter. Beside him are tools of his trade, such as a line used to lay out a plan. Some images, including a partial rendering of a multistory pagoda near the end of the book, are depicted sideways, across a double-page spread, to allow for a larger-scale composition. A detail of the pagoda’s finial ornament appears among other metalwork designs on another page. Interspersed among these ornate building designs are illustrations of practical construction, such as the building of a suspended bridge from hemp rope and wooden planks.

Selected reading:

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

Copies in other collections:

National Institute of Japanese Literature

Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden (1353-70B)