Kyōsai gafu 狂斎画譜

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Commentary by Oikawa Shigeru

Posted December 5, 2016

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

Kyōsai gafu (Kyōsai’s album) is the artist’s first illustrated book (ehon), and it should be appreciated as the ehon that set into motion Kawanabe Kyōsai’s prolific artistic output. [1] This fifty-four page book has twenty-nine illustrations by the twenty-nine-year-old Kyōsai, accompanied by seventy-nine kyōku (狂句; a type of comic haiku) by the “Master of Kinkadō” that relate to the composition. The inside front cover records the title Kyōsai gafu 狂斎画譜 and that it is published by the Kinkadō (Kinkadō shi 金花堂梓); it is illustrated with a drawing titled Paper Lantern and Temple Bell (Andon to tsurigane 提灯と釣鐘). The preface by Senryū VI (1858–1882) lists the date Man’en gan saru no toshi utsuki (万延元申のとし卯月), which suggests the book was issued in the fourth month of Man’en 1 (1860). It also states that Kyōsai’s contributions to the book were astonishing.

Kyōsai gafu exhibits none of the immaturity typically associated with a young artist, and the humor and accomplished style of the imagery foreshadows Kyōsai subsequent greatness. Each opening overflows with exuberant representations: renderings of bright red demons; the caricature of the deities of good fortune, Ebisu and Daikoku; acrobatics of people with long noses like avian-human tengu; and the King of Hell having his tongue pulled out by courtesans, among others. Many of these would become staple subjects in Kyōsai’s later repertory. The related poems add a note of humor, as seen in the poem accompanying the King of Hell image, the seventh two-page opening: yoku uso wo tsukinsu shita to kuwaerare (Since the King of Hell often cheats courtesans, they pull out his tongue). This is perhaps in keeping with the Japanese saying, “The liar’s tongue will be pulled out by the King of Hell.”

The cover of the first edition is dark blue with embossed patterns and includes a title slip reading Kyōsai gafu zen 狂斎画譜全 (Kyōsai’s album, complete). The colophon lists the publisher’s name and address: “Nihonbashi-dōri, 4-chōme, Kinkadō, Suharaya Sasuke” (日本橋通四丁目金花堂須原屋佐助). There were several later printings made after the Meiji Restoration of 1868. Many of these had yellow covers with title slips reading Kyōsai gafu shohen 狂斎画譜初篇(Kyōsai’s album, first edition) and colophons with the name and address “Nakamura Sasuke Nihonbashi-ku Tōri 4-chōme, Tokyo” (東京市日本橋区通四丁目　中村佐助) or with the address “Tōri 4-chōme 7-banchi” (通四丁目七番地). The volume in the Pulverer collection is one of these later prints dating to the Meiji period.

[1] The meaning of the term gafu (画譜) is equivalent to the word gashū 画集 (collection of pictures) in contemporary parlance. Until the incident of Kyōsai’s arrest in 1870, Kyōsai’s name was written with the characters 狂斎, as seen in this book; he would later use the characters 暁斎, also read “Kyōsai.” The “Master of Kinkadō” might be a reference to the publisher.

書名狂斎画譜

執筆者及川茂　

「画譜」とは現代語でいう「画集」という意味で、袋とじ54頁から成る彩色絵本で、若い時代の暁斎の戯画が生き生きと描かれている。表紙見返しに「狂斎画譜」「金花堂梓」の文字と「提灯と釣鐘」の挿絵がある。序文は六代目川柳Senryū。暁斎の挿絵29図があり、描かれた作品に関連する川柳の狂句79句が収められている。[1] 川柳の序文に「万延元申のとし卯月」とあるので、万延元年4月頃に出版されたと思われる。本書は暁斎の最初の絵本である。旺盛な制作を開始する端緒となった記念すべき絵本であるが、いわゆる若書きの稚拙さを微塵も感じさせず、ユーモアや熟達した描き方に将来の巨匠の姿が見える。見開きいっぱいに描いた真っ赤な鬼の図や恵比寿大黒の戯画、天狗のように鼻の高い人々の曲芸、花魁に舌を抜かれる閻魔など、後年の主題の多くがすでに描かれている。

初版の表紙は空摺模様の入った濃い青色で、題箋は「狂斎画譜　全」、奥付には「日本橋通四丁目　金花堂、須原屋佐助」とある。明治に入ってからの後摺が数種類あり、多くは黄色表紙で題箋は『狂斎画譜　初篇』、奥付には「東京市日本橋区通四丁目　中村佐助tōri 4 chōme」また「通四丁目七番地」と番地まで書かれた版もある。プルヴェラー・コレクションの本書は明治期の後摺本である。

[1] 暁斎Kyōsaiは明治3年の筆禍事件までは狂斎Kyōsaiと名乗っていた。

Selected readings

Louise Norton Brown, Block Printing and Book Illustration in Japan (London: George Routledge and Sons: E. P. Dutton, 1924), 196.

Collection Ch. Gillot, éstampes japonaises et livres illustrés, deuxième partie (Paris: Hôtel Drouot, 1904), 152.

Collection Ch. Haviland, éstampes japonaises et livres illustrés, 18^e vente （Paris: Hôtel Drouot, 1927), 89.

Collection Louis Gonse, 3 vols. (Paris: Hôtel Drouot, 1926), vol. 3, 54.

Théodore Duret, Livres et albums illustrés de Japon (Paris: Ernest Ledoux, 1900), 304.

Jack Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, 2 vols. (London: Sotheby’s Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers, 1987), see esp. vol. 2, 938.

Oikawa Shigeru 及川茂, ed., Comic Genius, Kawanabe Kyōsai/Kyōsai no giga kyōga 『暁斎の戯画・狂画』 (Tokyo: Tōkyō Shinbun, 1996), 148.

Yoshida Susugu 吉田漱 and C. H. Mitchell チャールズー・H・ミッチエル, Kyōsai gafu 『狂斎画譜』 (repr., Warabi City: Kyōsai Memorial Museum, 1985).

Copies in other collections

Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris

British Museum, London

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston