Ryakuga hayaoshie 略画早指南

FSC-GR-780.253.1–3

Commentary by Ann Yonemura

Posted November 2014

Among Hokusai’s illustrated books, his painting and brush-drawing manuals most clearly express his desire to disseminate his methods to a wide audience. Ryakuga hayaoshie (Quick lessons in simplified drawing) followed a half-century of Japanese-published manuals inspired by Chinese models that presented techniques for creating paintings by building forms from simple brushstrokes. Painting manuals were especially popular among amateur artists who wished to study the Chinese-inspired styles of contemporary Nanga artists, ranging from the detailed, traditional works of Chinese immigrant painters in Nagasaki to the individualistic interpretations of Japanese painters, such as Ike Taiga (1723–1776) (Hillier 1980, p. 139). Hillier suggests Hokusai might have seen such Dutch publications as Van de Passe’s The Light of Painting and Drawing of 1643 or Groot Schilerboek (Comprehensive painter’s book) of 1707, both published in Amsterdam. However, a Japanese book like Kōmō Zatsuwa, a miscellany of Western matters published in Edo in 1787, was probably more accessible to the artist (Hillier 1980, p. 141).

The three volumes of Ryakuga hayaoshie often show a finished image beside a simplified version of the same subject that is expressed as a series of geometric forms, circles drawn with a compass, or a few cursive characters written in the simple hiragana phonetic script. Calligraphic lines are especially effective for creating simplified but flowing outlines of costumes in figure compositions.

Although they share a title, the examples in the Pulverer collection have different dates of publication. Volumes 1 and 2 have blue paper covers embossed with a diamond-lattice pattern; they have preface dates of 1812 and 1814, respectively. Volume 3 has a plain blue cover, with no date indicated. The daisen label on the third book has the title Ryakuga hayaoshie sanpen, indicating that it is the third volume of the series. It is also followed by another title that is repeated at the beginning of the preface: Gadō hitori geiko.

Selected reading:

Jack Hillier, The Art of Hokusai in Book Illustration (London: Sotheby Parke-Bernet Publications; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), pp. 139–42.