Kyōgetsubō 狂月坊

FSC-GR-780.322

Commentary by Julie Nelson Davis

Posted September 30, 2015

This kyōka album of poems and illustrations about the moon is one of three published by Tsutaya and designed by Utamaro on the theme of “snow, moon, and flowers” (setsugekka 雪月花). Another album, Gin sekai, featu res poetic and pictorial responses to the topic of snow (see FSC-GR-780.318), and the third, Fugen zō (普賢像), on flowers, may be seen in the British Museum as well as in other collections.

Kyōgetsubō 狂月坊 may be translated as “moon-mad monk.” Using the same character for “mad” that appears in the term kyōka plays on the conceit that the poets are mad geniuses inspired by the moon. It likewise puns on the poetic name Kyōgetsu 暁月that was used by Reizei Tamemori 冷泉為守 (1265–1328), a figure lauded as the hereditary founder of kyōka poetry. [1] With a preface by poet Ki no Sadamaru, the album includes seventy-two poems and five full-color illustrations. Among the well-known literary figures included here are Shikatsube no Magao 鹿津部真顔, Tōrai Sanwa 唐来参和, Tsuburi no Hikaru つふり光, and Yadoya no Meshimori 宿屋飯盛. The publisher Tsutaya likewise offered a contribution under his sobriquet Tsuta no Karamaru 蔦唐丸.

Utamaro’s five illustrations demonstrate his familiarity with painting styles of the period, and each has been rendered into print by master woodblock carvers and printers. All these views are shown in moonlight, with the subject of each matched to its appropriate style. The first design, showing Prince Genji looking over Akashi Bay, mimics the long-appreciated courtly style that was associated with the Tosa school and features blind embossing in Genji’s white robe as well as metallic pigment sprinkled in the scalloped clouds. In the second illustration, appropriately rendered in ukiyo-e style, a courtesan and her client look out from a second-story room in the Yoshiwara licensed quarter, perhaps watching the progress of travelers along the road to the quarter. In the third—a landscape study rendered in the manner of an ink painting from the Kano school—the forms of two travelers are silhouetted against the sky. Here, special attention has been given to transferring the painted effects of brushed lines and ink wash into the print medium. The fourth image, showing a woman with two children looking toward a man perched on the rim of a barrel, with the moon visible in the sky, is designed to mimic the free brush line and witty treatment associated with Hanabusa Itchō 英一蝶 (1652–1724). Two gentlemen traverse a silver bridge leading toward a shimmering Chinese-style palace set within the circular form of the moon and against the embossed forms of clouds in the final picture drawn in a courtly Ming-inspired style.

The Pulverer copy is appreciated as an early printing with the subtle coloration and enhancements that made this a treasured production. This copy was formerly in the collection of the jeweler and renowned collector Henri Vever.

For other impressions of this title, see the online collection websites of the British Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. For a facsimile version of this text, see Utamaro by Cholley et al. cited below.

Selected readings:

Asano Shūgō and Timothy Clark, The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun; London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1995).

Jean Cholley, Dominique Morcelon, Junko Miura, and Elisabeth Lemirre, Utamaro: Paysages de neige, La lune folle, A marée basse (Arles: Éditions Philippe Picquier, 2006).

Suzuki Toshiyuki 鈴木俊幸, Tsutaya Jūzaburō 『蔦屋重三郎』 , vol. 9 of Kinsei bungaku kenkyū sōsho 近世文学研究叢書 (Tokyo: Wakakusa shobō, 1998).

Copies in other collections:

Art Institute of Chicago

British Museum, London

Chiba City Museum of Art

Harvard University Art Museum, Cambridge, MA

Keiō University

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

National Diet Library, Tokyo

Ryūkoku University

Tōyō Bunko, Tokyo

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

[1] On the Reizei lineage, see Steven D. Carter, Householders: The Reizei Family in Japanese History (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007).