Hana fubuki 花吹雪

FSC-GR-780.749.1-2

Commentary by Kurahashi Masae

Posted December 7, 2017

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

Hagetsutei Kasetsu (波月亭花雪), a leader in kyōga awase (興画合) painting, died at a young age on the fifth day of the sixth month of 1865 (Keiō 1). This book commemorates his memory. Seventy-six individuals contributed kanshi (Chinese-style)or haiku poetry, and the themes of the verses are based on the characters in Kasetsu’s name: wave (波), moon (月), flower (花), and snow (雪).

Kyōga awasewasa competitive pastime in which topics are distributed ahead of time. The participants then created seemingly unrelated images using pictorial allusions, associations, or wordplays based on the subject. The game enjoyed popularity amongliterati (bunjin) and literary connoisseurs from the Keiō era (1865–1868) to the early Meiji period (1868–1912). Kyōga awase participants would convey their ideas to an artist, who would produce images based on them and then gather them into a book that would be passed to a judge, who critiqued and scored the work in regular gatherings.

Kasetsu was one of the leading organizers of kyōga awase. It is known that his father was Tsuji Den’emon (辻伝右衛門), a wealthy “government official” in Ginza who ran a silver minting business, and that his uncle was the gesaku writer Takabatake Ransen 高畠藍泉 (later Ryūtei Tanehiko III 三世柳亭種彦, 1838–85). We have few other details about Kasetsu’s life or his career; however, thebiography accompanying Utagawa Yoshiiku’s Kasetsu’s portrait at the beginning of volume 1 states that he enjoyed the tea ceremony and that his hobby was collecting a wide range of paintings, from artists such Sakai Hōitsu 酒井抱一 (1761–1828) and Watanabe Kazan 渡辺崋山 (1793–1841) to ukiyo-e and even oil paintings. [1]

It appears that Kasetsu was much missed. In 1867, the year corresponding to the third anniversary of his death, the memorial publications Hazuki shū (端月集) and Kumanaki kage (FSC-GR-780.890) were issued. The contributors to these works were the cultural elite of the period and regular kyōga awase participants.

書名花吹雪

執筆者倉橋正恵

慶応元年（1865）六月五日に夭折した、興画合の推進者であった波月亭花雪追悼のための追善集。本書では花雪の名に因んだ波・月・花・雪のいずれかの題で、計七十六人が彼を偲んで詩や句を寄せる。興画合とは、事前に与えられた題について連想や見立て、言葉遊びなどを用いて題とは異なるイメージの絵に表現し、それに点数を付ける遊興の一種で、慶応年間から明治初年にかけて文人や通人達の間で流行した。興画合の参加者は各自のアイデアを絵師に伝えて描いてもらい、それを集めて本に仕立てたものを撰者に渡し、撰者はそれぞれの絵に評価をつけて例会で講評するというものであった。

花雪は興画合の有力な主催者の一人で、父が銀座役人の辻伝右衛門、叔父は戯作者の高畠藍泉後の三世柳亭種彦であったという事は知られている。しかし、花雪自身の来歴や詳細については、現在のところよくわかっていない。[1] 乾巻冒頭の歌川芳幾による花雪の肖像に併記される伝記では、生前には茶道を嗜み、また酒井抱一や渡辺崋山から、浮世絵、油彩画に至るまで、広い範囲の絵画収集が趣味であったことが記されている。

花雪の早世は当時相当に惜しまれたようで、三回忌にあたる慶応三年（1867）には、興画合の連衆達に加えて当時の文化人が参加した『くまなき影』（FSC-GR-780.890）や、『端月集』といった追善の書物も刊行されている。

Selected readings:

Imayoshi Kenichirō 今吉賢一郎, “Mainichi shinbun no genryū” 『毎日新聞の源流』, Mainichi shinbun (1988), 136–42.

Satō Satoru 佐藤悟, “‘Kakuyaikani no ki’ shūhen”「『かくやいかにの記』周辺」,Kokugo to kokubungaku 725 『国語と国文学725』(June 1984), 41–54.

Satō Satoru 佐藤悟, “‘Yakusha sawa’ no seiritsu to sono sakusha Kabuki ni tsuite: ‘Kakuyaikani no ki’ sōkōbon dai nijyūdan, dai nijyūichi dan chūshaku”「『俳優茶話』の成立とその作者株木について―『かくやいかにの記』草稿本第二十段・第二十一段注釈―」, in Nobuhiro Shinji 延広真治 (ed.), Edo no bunji 『江戸の文事』(Tokyo: Perikansha, 2000), 382–99.

Copies in other collections:

Chester Beatty Library, Dublin

Kanazawa City Library

National Diet Library

Tenri University, Tenri Central Library, Nara Prefecture

Tōhoku University, Sendai

Tokyo Metropolitan Central Library

Tokyo National Museum

[1] Imayoshi 1998, 136–42.