Page 472 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

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of drums tied to his torso; Blue Fudo According to the colophon, inscribed the dance craze started to wane.
Myôô, a Buddhist guardian deity by an early owner of the scroll a year About that time the artist created a
(Sanskrit: Achala Vidyaraja), is adorned or so after it was painted, the dance at six-panel screen on the same theme.
with a fiery halo. Further along we the time was referred to as a butterfly Early in his career Ozawa Kagaku
find Jó and Uba — the aged married (chô-chô) dance because of the showy had studied under Ganku (cats. 205,
couple from the auspicious no play costumes people wore. It was also 206), and he later worked in the Shijo
Takasago — frolicking with brooms in sometimes referred to as a choi-chot style under the tutelage of Yokoyama
hand. A retinue of nearly naked men, dance, since people often broke Kazan (cat. 135). His experience as
heads wrapped in yellow kerchiefs, into singing popular folk songs that an illustrator of medical texts is
are linked together by the loose ends included rhythmic refrains such as reflected here in his convincing re-
of their loincloths. Townspeople in "choi-choi."The artist signed and presentation of human anatomy in
everyday clothes are also caught up in dated the scroll at the beginning of varied poses. JTC
the spirit of the masquerade dance. the fourth month of 1839, which the
records reveal is just about the time