Bunpō gafu nihen 文鳳画譜二編

FSC-GR-780.279.1-2

Commentary by Ellis Tinios

Posted September 5, 2016

Bunpō gafu nihen ( Bunpō gafu, part two) appeared in 1811, four years after the first part (Bunpō gafu; FSC-GR-780.278). The author of the preface to this volume, Ichiuntei Masatoshi (dates unknown), comments on the combination of the rough and refined in Bunpō’s work and the rapidity with which he captured a subject. It begins with nine double-page images that present the literati (bunjin) subjects encountered in part one. In this book, however, the scale of the images is even greater, ranging from compositions of massive rabbits that fill the entire picture plane to distant landscapes. These designs are followed by twelve openings that have from two to five figures on each page, illustrating Chinese literati, their boy servants, peasants, and porters. Everyone in this all-male world is depicted in an activity appropriate to his station and is correspondingly labeled: “in conversation,” “reclining on a rock to read a book,” “drinking together,” “pointing into the distance,” and so forth. Precedents for them can be traced back to the staffage figures in the first part of the Chinese Jiezhiyuan hua zhuan 芥子園畫傳 (J. Kaishien gadan; The mustard seed garden manual of painting; 1679).

Part two concludes with a further ten double-page openings that portray the usual literati subjects. The last two images in the book are linked: the first of these shows the full-length figure of the frog immortal, Gamma Sennin (蝦蟇仙人), and the following, final composition confronts the viewer with the close-up image of his three-legged frog mascot. The startling discrepancy in scale between these two related images provides a witty conclusion to the book.

The Pulverer copy is a fine early printing (see also FSC-GR-780.280).

Selected readings

Louise Norton Brown, Block Printing and Book Illustration in Japan (London: George Routledge and Sons: E. P. Dutton, 1924).

Jack Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, 2 vols. (London: Sotheby’s Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., 1987), see esp. vol. 2, 686–99.

Owen E. Holloway, Graphic Art of Japan: The Classical School (London: Alec Tiranti,1957).

C. H. Mitchell, with the assistance of Osamu Ueda, The Illustrated Books of the Nanga, Maruyama, Shijo and Other Related Schools of Japan. A Bibibliography (Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1972).

Kenji Toda, Descriptive Catalogue of the Japanese and Chinese Illustrated Books in the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: 1931; repr., Mansfield Centre, CT: Martino Publishing, 2004).

Copies in other collections
Art Institute of Chicago

British Museum, London

Ebi Collection (private) (viewable on online database of the Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto)

Freer Gallery of Art Library, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Museum Volkenkunde, Leiden

New York Public Library, New York