Ryakuga hayaoshie

Ryakuga hayaoshie 略画早指南, Vol. 1, FSC-GR-780.253.1-3
front cover
inside front cover - page 1
pages 2-3
pages 4-5
pages 6-7
pages 8-9
pages 10-11
pages 12-13
pages 14-15
pages 16-17
pages 18-19
pages 20-21
pages 22-23
pages 24-25
pages 26-27
pages 28-29
pages 30-31
pages 32-33
pages 34-35
pages 36-37
pages 38-39
pages 40-41
pages 42-43
pages 44-45
pages 46-47
pages 48-49
pages 50-51
page 52 - inside back cover
back cover
Description
Contents
Commentary
Accession No.
FSC-GR-780.253.1-3
Title
Ryakuga hayaoshie 略画早指南
Date
vol. 1: 1812 (Bunka 9); vol. 2: 1814 (Bunka 11); vol. 3: 1815 (Bunka 12)
Artist
Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849)
Publisher
Publisher unspecified
City
City of publication unspecified
Description
3 volumes in modern case
Binding
fukurotoji (pouch binding)
Medium
Woodblock printed; ink on paper; paper covers
Marks
Owner's seal: Pulverer
Format
chūbon
Dimensions
18.6 x 13.1 x 0.7 cm
Provenance
To 2007 Dr. and Mrs. Gerhard Pulverer, Germany, to 2007 From 2007 Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Dr. and Mrs. Gerhard Pulverer in 2007
Credit Line
Purchase, The Gerhard Pulverer Collection — Charles Lang Freer Endowment, Friends of the National Museum of Asian Art and the Harold P. Stern Memorial fund in appreciation of Jeffrey P. Cunard and his exemplary service to the Museum as chair of the Board of Trustees (2003-2007)
Usage
Usage conditions apply

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Accession no. FSC-GR-780.253.1-3

 

Title: Ryakuga hayaoshie  略画早指南

 

NIJL catalogue no. 235

 

Volume numbers: Vol. 1 of 3 初篇 / Vol. 2 of 3 二篇 / Vol. 3 of 3 三篇全

 

Variant titles:

Ryakuga  りやくぐは (hashira, vol. 1)

Shin Ryakuga  新りやく画 (hashira, vol. 2)

Ezsukusi  画つくし (hashira, vol. 3)

Kōhen hayaoshie  後編早指南  (title page, vol. 2)

Gadō hitorigeiko  画道独稽古  (preface, vol. 3)

Ryakuga hayaoshie sanpen gadō hitorigeiko  略画早指南三篇画道独稽古 (daisen, vol. 3)

 

Contents/Foliation:

Vol. 1 Preface signed Kyōrian Bainen 鏡裏庵梅年

Advertisement of forthcoming volumes of Ryakuga hayashinan

 

Vol. 2

Preface signed Nettetsu 熱鉄

 

Seals and inscriptions: Owner's seal: Pulverer

 

Notes: Main title from daisen  (vols. 1 and 2)

Dates from prefaces

Reading of main title as recorded at end of preface (vol. 1)

Handwritten daisen  in vol. 1; original daisen  in vols. 2 and 3

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.