Drawing in Japan (Part two)

Hokusai's Quick Lessons in Simplified Drawings, is a drawing manual in three parts. Volume I breaks every drawing down into simple geometric shapes; volume II decomposes them into fragmentary contours; and volume III diagrams each stroke and the order in which they were drawn.

As an introduction to Japanese art these three books are a wonderful entry into a world that is both formal and strange. 

Hokusai's 'Quick lessons in simplified drawing'

We are used to seeing geometry being used as an underlying structural principle in Western art, but this is mainly for compositional use, not for individual image construction. Hokusai's drawings of animals, landscapes and people are cyphers, in that they are reduced to very basic elements; however his inventive play, the use of formal elements that go into the process of geometrical simplification, is of a very high order. Compare his drawings with a contemporary Western visual primer for children. 

How to draw a cat using circles

These 'how to draw using circles' exercises are easy to find but what they don't do is to go beyond first steps, the compression of movement and time that Hokusai puts into his image of a walking woman for instance, is very sophisticated. 

Hokusai's drawing of a walking woman above also reminds me of those classic Western art contrapposto poses, whereby someone stands with most of their weight on one foot, so that their shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the axial plane, a pose often used to suggest the body in movement. In this image of Hokusai's the figure is energetically moving along, forever walking, in contrast to the cat it has 'life'. Hokusai's human figures demonstrate a really high level of visual compression. 

Durer

Compare Hokusai's image with Durer's and you can see how much visual compression he has achieved. Durer is trying to sort out the body as it twists and has the weight on one foot, but it's still very fiddly and static in comparison. This issue is perhaps fundamental to an understanding of different traditions and in my mind reflects a difference between the Christian idea of original sin and the Buddhist concept of the continuous cycle of rebirth. Durer's figure is awkward in its self awareness but Hokusai's is just getting on with life. 

See also: 

Non western aesthetics (Japan)

Paper folding and the songs of trees

Emakimono hand scrolls

Indian aesthetics

The six principles of Chinese brush drawing can be found in this post