[Who is Sharaku?] Ⅲ Quantifiable elements for sense of harmony in Sharaku's artwork

There are people who believe that Sharaku was Utamaro.
Though I do not think so, it is interesting to see the formal difference of both.
Japanese comic artist Isinomori claims that Utamaro's hands are very much like Sharaku's ones.
I picked these images with hands because of high resolution.

Art is not communication from the artist but infomation on shape of artwork.
Seeing a painting as portrait makes hard to see it formally.
So I cut off the top half in order to consentrate to see the detail more precisely.

Now it is obvious that Sharaku's work is very decorative: every part is finished evenly.
He could not be a noh-actor but be an experienced artisan.
Obviously Sharaku was well aquainted with ornamental art like maki-e(Japanese lacquar art).
And he collaborated well with the printmakers.
This artist knew that ornamental art and painting are of the same genre.
The public failed to see the formal content because they appreciated it as symbol, which is the reason why some thought Sharaku's later styles are less significant.


On the other hand, the parts of Utamaro's prints are unevenly executed: the back ground is drawn with un-unified brush lines.
It seems that he was a typical painter enjoying sketching  and his drawing was handed over to the print maker group.
He must have annoyed the engraver.


The difference between Utamaro and Sharaku is quantifiable.
Curved line is expressive because we have ability to see the different degree of curvature on line.
A curve with even curvature is an arc.
And all the basic circles of the arcs can be arranged into concentric circles.
Making concentri circle model, we can check how many circles are used as the base of the arcs.
As each curvature of the arcs was drawn to look different, the base-circles in the model have enogh intervals.
When many arcs of the same circle are used we feel the sense of harmony, which is very well known device in decorative art and archtecture.
It can be said that all the arcs make a scale like tone scale.
The creation of tone scale was universal.
Likewise the use of arc-scale in artwork can be found any time, any where.
It seems to be human nature to draw with the scaled curves.
I took out only hand parts and, for each, I made the arc model, quater-circle model and the harmonious index.

The last illustration is very interesting because the arcs of the same circle are used for both the hand and the sword; the artist was aware of the use of unit.
When arcs are linked it is harder to recognize each arc, which is the reason why almost nobody but genius noticed that the smallest ellement of art is arc.
Nontheless the visual effect is evident for any viewer.


Now I introduce harmonious index made after the quater-circle model.

The first three rows are of Utamaro and the last two are of Sharaku.
A group of arcs of the same circle are counted and arranged in a row, the smallest circle on the left.


Both artist used small number of the basic circle.
The numbers on the yellow rectangles shows that Utamaro used more straight lines than Sharaku.
In Utamaro index,except the straight lines, 3 is the largest number, which means that the arcs of the same circle are used at most three times.
On the other hand in Sharaku index, the numbers are larger; 4, 5 6, 7 and 9 are seen, which makes Sharaku uniquely harmonious.
There is only one contemporary artist who used this harmonious device with arcs in Saraku's time.
Grammatically every work should be analyzed to establish real art theory.
Sharaku left more than hundred forty works and the artist thought to be Sharaku left ten thousand works.
There are numerous works which indicate they are the same artist.
  ( to be continued)