Image: Homma Museum of Art, Sakata
The Homma Museum of Art in Sakata, Japan, has highlighted a preparatory drawing depicting a *kōshi*—a person presented as being of high moral character. The museum’s interpretation focuses on the work’s surviving line studies, its devotional function and the artist’s attention to the human body beneath the figure’s clothing.
According to the museum, the presence of multiple lines in the drawing indicates that it served as an underdrawing for a worship image. The source material does not identify the work’s title, date or confirmed maker, and describes the handling of the image in relation to Maruyama Ōkyo, using language that characterizes the lines as Ōkyo-like rather than definitively attributing the drawing to him.
The drawing reflects an approach based on sketching from life, observation and anatomy. The museum says these elements were used to understand the figure’s skeleton and to convey the idea of a rationally structured body beneath the garments. That anatomical framework is presented as an important part of the image’s construction, even though much of the visible subject is covered by clothing.
The costume is described as being captured in smooth, uninterrupted lines characteristic of Ōkyo’s manner. The museum also notes the use of pale coloration applied through *tsuketate* brushwork, a method in which the handling of the brush contributes to the form without relying solely on conventional outlined contours.
The emphasis on preparatory lines offers a view of the work as part of a process rather than only as a finished devotional image. The surviving drawing reveals how the figure’s posture, anatomy and clothing were considered together before the final image was completed. It also connects the work’s religious subject with an observational practice grounded in the study of the visible world.
The museum’s notice, published on 19 August 2026, presents the drawing as an example of Ōkyo-style methods and does not announce an exhibition, event or display period associated with it. No further object details were provided in the source material.
