Kafuku ninpitsu 禍福任筆

FSC-GR-780.288

Commentary by Ellis Tinios

Posted August 1, 2017

Kawamura Kihō (1778–1852) was the adopted son and leading pupil of Kawamura Bunpō, the most prolific designer of books of the Maruyama-Shijō lineage.(All of Bunpō’s major titles are present in the Pulverer Collection.) Kihō has just two books to his credit: Kihō gafu (FSC-GR-780.290) and this title. In addition, Kihō edited the posthumously published Bunpō sansui gafu (FSC-GR-780.284). These three books were commissioned and originally released by the Kyoto publisher Yoshidaya Shinbē (Buneidō 文徴堂).

Kafuku ninpitsu(The ups and downs of life entrusted to a brush) is unprecedented in Edo-period publishing. While it falls within the broad category of “genre books” (jinbutsu gafu 人物画譜; literally “albums of figures”), whichrecord the daily life of all classes in contemporary Japan, it is distinguished by its inclusion of the pains and sorrows as well as the joys of life. Compare it, for example, with Yamaguchi Soken’s Yamato jinbutsu gafu (FSC-GR-780.767.1-3 and FSC-GR-780.769.1-3) of 1799 and 1804, respectively, the first major work in the genre. Soken dwells exclusively on the blessings of the life enjoyed by the people of Japan. Kihō, on the other hand, is unflinching in his depictions of domestic violence, illness, solitude and poverty, as well as the expected scenes of prosperity, domestic harmony, and the simple pleasures of life.

The range of situations presented by Kihō is explained by the origins of the book. In Kihō’s brief, one-page postscript, he explains that the publisher Buneidō (Yoshidaya Shinbē) requested that he create the twenty-five images in the book in order to explore the ways in which people’s fates were determined by the five-element (五行gogyō) pairings of their birth years and their karmic load (三世相sanseisō). He goes on to say that the illustrations are not for viewing just once but to be savored repeatedly.

The four-page preface by Kamo no Suetaka 加茂季鷹(1752–1842) states that the reader will encounter familiar scenes and life experiences in the pages that follow. The images are introduced by a one-page presentation in archaic seal script of the five “generating interactions” and the five “overcoming interactions” of the five elements (gogyō sōjōsōkoku 五行相生相剋). The final column indicates that a double pairing of a single element leads to neither good nor bad fortune (hankichi 半吉).

Turning to the images, the most haunting scene in the book is perhaps the sale of a daughter to a brothel keeper (pp. 24–25 on the website). There are also painful scenes of children begging their father to stop beating their mother (pp. 14–15, 52–53) and a doctor summoned to a poor home to see a sick husband (pp.38-39). These contrast with depictions of more cheerful moments: a young boy rushing out of to welcome his returning father and older brother (pp. 28–29); a middle-aged couple quietly at work on their bonsai (pp. 32–33). In many of the scenes the composition revolves around a woman, whether she be the quiet center of a large family or the object of male violence. Many of the settings are also unlike those seen elsewhere in print: crowded back alleys; run-down houses; crowded kitchens.

The Pulverer copy is a relatively early printing of the book. There is occasional mis-registration of the blocks printing the pink and grey tints, and some soiling in the lower margins. The Pulverer Collection also includes a variant edition of this book (Goitsu gafu; FSC-GR-780.289).

Selected readings:

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

Jack Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, 2 vols. (London: Sotheby’s Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., 1987), esp. vol. 2, pp. 698–99, 702.

Roger S. Keyes, Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan (The New York Public Library in association with the University of Washington Press, 2006).

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 Biobibliography (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 (multiple copies)

Ebi Collection (private) (see Art Research Center, Ritsumeikan University online database)

New York Public Library, New York

Kafuku nimpitsu