Drawing 1, 19.2 X 27.4 cm.

Tamenaka and Wrestling scene, by Hokusai.

1 A.  Tamenaka dressed as a warrior monk.

Published in Chinsetsu yumihari zuki (Strange tales of the crescent moon  ³), vol. 1, p. 1B, in 1807.
  

     Changes from drawing to print:

• The main difference is the addition of the frame which required positioning changes to rebalance the print.
• The text Sanuki in no shinji…, Kurobo Tamenaka  (In Sanuki province…, Kurobo Tamenaka), positioned on the drawing in the most practical and logical place, needed to be moved in the print to the largest available space, which the artist was obliged to enlarge by reducing the size of the tree at top right and the vegetation on the rocks below the text.
• The vegetation at the bottom right of the large rock and the sword-knot which would have gone over the edge of the frame has been removed from the print.
   

Artist’s shorthand:

• The pine needles, which are very precisely drawn at the top, are indicated only as a volumetric shape at the bottom.
• The way of working the ground detail is only indicated.
• As usual, the flat black areas, in order to keep the drawing as clear as possible.

The brushwork here is quite remarkable: There are, in the same drawing, superb ukiyo-e lines, wedge-shaped strokes and kanô lines, artist’s shorthand and finally some coloured highlights. De Goncourt, Hokousaï, p. 259, when talking about an album of drawings by Hokusai, mentions the highlights “with a slightly pink tint” (d’une petite teinte rose). Finally, some vigorous, spontaneous lines in the drawing clearly go outside the limits imposed by the frame in the print.

The Chinsetsu yumihari zuki book  was published over a five year period and brought fame and glory to Hokusai and Bakin. The publisher then commissioned Hokusai to do a painting as a gift for Bakin. Hokusai, as if to match this first print, chose a subject which is eerily similar: Tametomo and the Demons of Onigashima Island. The painting, which is at the British Museum, is reproduced in Muneshige Narazaki,  Nikuhitsu Ukiyo-e, ( Shueisha, 1982), vol. 7, plate 26; Forrer- de Goncourt, Hokusai, 1988, n° 151; Narazaki (Supervised by) Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in European  Collections, ( Kodansha, 1988-89), vol. 1 British Museum, pl. 140; Tim Clark [ Paintings by Hokusai in The British Museum] in: Calza, Carpenter, Hokusai Paintings, (University of Venice, 1994),  209; Tim Clark, Ukiyo-e paintings in the British Museum ( British Museum press, 1992), n° 96. The brushstrokes in this drawing are very similar to those of Hokusai’s paintings of the same period and in particular the one in the British Museum mentioned above, as well as in a painting dated 1806, and reproduced in Nagata, Hokusai Museum, (Shueisha, 1990), vol. 2, plate 12.

1 B.  A man, standing enigmatically, overpowers another.

Published in Kana dehon gonichi no bunshô  (The “Chûchingura”: a sequel  ³), vol. 1, pp. 22B-23A, in 1809.
 

Changes from drawing to print:

• The tree has been moved to the right, the horse’s tether has become longer and tied  down lower.
• The upright man has been slightly enlarged: the right-hand side of his outline has been moved several millimetres to the right.
• The decoration on the kneeling man has been fully drawn: the tattoos and the pattern on the clothes.
• A house appears in the background.
• The monks and the puppies have been removed for different reasons (see 1C for the monks and 1D for the puppies).

Artist’s shorthand:

• As usual, the flat black areas have been left white.
• Unusually, all the patterns on the clothes of the man on the right have been drawn in.

This sketch is a preliminary study of the main action for a scene which appears on the left-hand page of a double page print. The three monks which would have gone over the edge of the print had to be removed  (see 1C). 

This drawing has all the typical characteristics of a preliminary sketch. Drawn in 1809, filling the remaining space on a sheet containing an earlier drawing done in 1807, it is spontaneous, dynamic and showing so much imagination that it will have to be reined in to give more simplicity in the print.

1 C. part of 1B.  Three monks standing in the distance.

Published in Kana dehon gonichi no bunshô, vol. 1, p. 17A, in 1809. (see Fig. 2 C).  

Changes from drawing to print:

• Since it is the reuse of a drawing destined for a different project (Fig. 1B), the hidden parts in the first drawing (behind the horse’s head) have been completed while others have disappeared behind the new decor (the guardrail)
  
  Hokusai must have noticed when laying out this ichiji shita-e, for copying into the shita-e that the monks would go over the limit imposed by the frame in the print and therefore removed them. However, having  appreciated them for their natural movement, he decided to keep them for use elsewhere. They appear in the same volume, a few pages farther, with a slight adjustment to adapt them to their new environment.
   

1 D. part of 1B.  Three puppies

Because of their small size, we have not been able to find these puppies in  Suzuki, Hokusai yomihon sashie shûsei, and therefore do not know if they were published.

^3. The  English translations of the titles of Japanese books have been borrowed from: Lane (Richard) Hokusai. Life and work. Dutton, N.Y., 1989.