Will there be a take (or a comment) on the famous Hokusai’s ‘ninja’ drawing in the “Hokusai manga”? Can we deduce anything from the fact that it appears on the same page as ‘jūjutsu grapplings’?
Yeah, that's an interesting one, isn't it? It's hard to interpret because a lot of Hokusai's pictures are just pictures, with no text to explain what's going on. Taken in the broader context of Hokusai's drawings a few pages before and after, my guess is that he was depicting various aspects of the 武芸十八般 ('Eighteen Martial Skills'), of which the last is 隠形 - read as shinobi. The question would be what the black garb signifies. I think, by the early 19th century, what we now think of as the black 'ninja' gear had become a standard artistic motif for people sneaking around (burglars, going to the Yoshiwara, secret samurai missions, etc) as in the image of Kimura, Deputy Gov of Hitachi from Ehon taikoki (c. 1797) seen in cell #2087 here: https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/200014405/2087?ln=ja.
So it would make sense for Hokusai to use that visual motif if he was trying to depict the shinobi aspect of the 18 aspects of the martial arts. It's also entirely possible that people doing this did indeed wear the black garb during their training, perhaps as a kind of "life imitating art" thing.
But I'd add two qualifying points - I don't think this can be read as a case of "real ninja wore black!" First, the 武芸十八般 thing is early Edo-period onward, not Warring States, and Hokusai's pic is more than 200 years after the end of the Warring States period, so I don't think we can use this as evidence that actual Warring States shinobi really did wear black hoods - I'd read it more, as I've argued previously, that black hoods were used across the board in visual depictions of all sorts of clandestine activity, most of which had nothing to do with 'ninja.'
Second, the implication of the inclusion of the figure in a sequence of lots of other warrior training would be that "shinobi" was simply part of the general martial arts curriculum as it existed in 1819 - rather like the kusarigama - rather than something super secret or confined to clans of despised and secretive specialists out there in the misty mountains...
That actually makes perfect sense! How would you draw “stealth” as a こと (not もの), which would be the concept in Bugei jūhappan, right? For Hokusai, drawing a sneaking person dressed in black (with respect to contemporary usage of such thing) to represent “being sneaky” could easily be almost the only option available… Thanks a lot!
Will there be a take (or a comment) on the famous Hokusai’s ‘ninja’ drawing in the “Hokusai manga”? Can we deduce anything from the fact that it appears on the same page as ‘jūjutsu grapplings’?
Yeah, that's an interesting one, isn't it? It's hard to interpret because a lot of Hokusai's pictures are just pictures, with no text to explain what's going on. Taken in the broader context of Hokusai's drawings a few pages before and after, my guess is that he was depicting various aspects of the 武芸十八般 ('Eighteen Martial Skills'), of which the last is 隠形 - read as shinobi. The question would be what the black garb signifies. I think, by the early 19th century, what we now think of as the black 'ninja' gear had become a standard artistic motif for people sneaking around (burglars, going to the Yoshiwara, secret samurai missions, etc) as in the image of Kimura, Deputy Gov of Hitachi from Ehon taikoki (c. 1797) seen in cell #2087 here: https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/200014405/2087?ln=ja.
So it would make sense for Hokusai to use that visual motif if he was trying to depict the shinobi aspect of the 18 aspects of the martial arts. It's also entirely possible that people doing this did indeed wear the black garb during their training, perhaps as a kind of "life imitating art" thing.
But I'd add two qualifying points - I don't think this can be read as a case of "real ninja wore black!" First, the 武芸十八般 thing is early Edo-period onward, not Warring States, and Hokusai's pic is more than 200 years after the end of the Warring States period, so I don't think we can use this as evidence that actual Warring States shinobi really did wear black hoods - I'd read it more, as I've argued previously, that black hoods were used across the board in visual depictions of all sorts of clandestine activity, most of which had nothing to do with 'ninja.'
Second, the implication of the inclusion of the figure in a sequence of lots of other warrior training would be that "shinobi" was simply part of the general martial arts curriculum as it existed in 1819 - rather like the kusarigama - rather than something super secret or confined to clans of despised and secretive specialists out there in the misty mountains...
For those not familiar with the image from Hokusai manga, it's cell #34 here: https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100259263/34?ln=ja
That actually makes perfect sense! How would you draw “stealth” as a こと (not もの), which would be the concept in Bugei jūhappan, right? For Hokusai, drawing a sneaking person dressed in black (with respect to contemporary usage of such thing) to represent “being sneaky” could easily be almost the only option available… Thanks a lot!
As an aside, pleased to see a copy of Idly Scribbling Rhymers is available in my university library. Will check it out.
Thanks! It's got nothing at all to do with 'ninja' - more to do with print media, poetry, and politics in Japan - but I was quite proud of it.
It is poetry month, I believe