Eiri wakan inshitsu den

FSC-GR-780.227

Commentary by Ann Yonemura

Posted November 2014

The title of this book, (Eiri) wakan inshitsu den (Illustrated history of the hidden protection of Japan and China), includes the Chinese term yinzhi (Japanese: inshitsu). It refers to the unseen and divine protection that is conferred by heaven to ensure the security of the virtuous rulers and people of the two nations. The term wakan (Japanese and Chinese) had a long history in Japan. Wakan compilations pair Japanese and Chinese subjects as parallel and equal in artistic merit and cultural value. A famous poetry anthology, Wakan rōeishū (Japanese and Chinese poems to sing) was compiled by a Japanese courtier, Fujiwara no Kintō (966–1041), in the early eleventh century. The compilation became a key source for learning short passages of poetry in Chinese.

Hokusai’s long-standing interest in Chinese subjects and pictorial styles began early in his career. As early as 1784, in illustrations for Kyokun zōnagamochi, he displayed a mastery of brushwork that reflected his familiarity with Chinese-style ink painting and calligraphy, most often as interpreted by Japanese artists. His ideas for imagery of Chinese narratives were developed further in the large, intermittent project of Suikoden illustrations that he created for more than twenty years, beginning in 1805. Several of his late works, both book illustrations and color print series, focused on Chinese or combinations of Japanese and Chinese subjects.

Selected reading:

Jack Hillier, The Art of Hokusai in Book Illustration (London: Sotheby Parke-Bernet Publications; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), p. 236.

Toda Kenji, Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese and Chinese Illustrated Books in the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute of Chicago (1931; repr., Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2005), p. 263.

Copies in other collections:

Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson Collection

National Institute of Japanese Literature

Wakan inshitsu den