Hokusai’s Giant Daruma: The Street Performance Sensibilities of a Master Painter

Event flyer drawn by Hokusai. (Courtesy Nagoya City Museum)

A crowd gathers for a painting performance by Hokusai, illustrated and recorded by Enkōan in Hokusai taiga sokusho saizu (Illustrated Report of Hokusai’s Live Large-Scale Painting). (Courtesy Nagoya City Museum)

Adding details to Daruma’s face. From Enkōan’s Hokusai taiga sokusho saizu (Illustrated Report of Hokusai’s Live Large-Scale Painting). (Courtesy Nagoya City Museum)

Visitors admiring Hokusai’s giant painting. From Enkōan’s Hokusai taiga sokusho saizu (Illustrated Report of Hokusai’s Live Large-Scale Painting). (Courtesy Nagoya City Museum)

Katsushika Ōi makes effective use of light and shade in Yoshiwara kōshi saki no zu (Night Scene in the Yoshiwara). (Courtesy the Ōta Memorial Museum of Art)