Tsūzoku isoppu monogatari 通俗伊蘇普物語

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Commentary by Oikawa Shigeru

Posted December 6, 2016

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

In 1858 the London publisher John Murray published the English translation of Aesop’s Fables by the Reverend Thomas James (1809–1863). Watanabe Tazunu 渡辺温 translated this into Japanese for the six-volume work titled Tsūzoku isoppu monogatari (A popular Aesop’s Fables). Kawanabe Kyōsai, Fujisawa Bainan 藤沢梅南 (1835–1881), and Sakaki Kōson 榊篁邨 (1823–1894) provided illustrations based on the original drawings by Sir John Teniel (1820–1914). [1] There are thirty-five illustrations in total: nine by Bainan and three by Kōson, with Kyōsai responsible for the remaining twenty-three.

The first three volumes (Part 1) were published in 1872 (Meiji 5), and the last three (Part 2) appeared the following year. The translator Watanabe Tazunu taught at a school in Numazu, Shizuoka, where the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu 徳川慶喜 (Keiki; 1837–1913), retired with his followers. Watanabe published Aesop’s Fables with the intent of using it as a textbook. The listing of the publisher as “Mr. Watanabe, who holds the publishing rights” confirms he was also the publisher. Among the advertisements listed at the end of each volume is one announcing an English-language version, but it seems that this never came to fruition. A classical Chinese translation was published instead.

The illustrations in the first edition of the three volumes comprising Part 1 incorporate woodblock-printed washes of light color in select areas, seen, for example, in rendering skin tones or the blue of a nocturnal sky. By contrast, there were no color images in the three volumes of Part 2 and in later editions. The Pulverer copy is one such later edition.

While the contributions by Bainan and Kōson faithfully translate Teniel’s original drawings into the woodblock-print medium, Kyōsai’s illustrations, although respecting the original source imagery, are more independent. They are noteworthy for conveying his distinct, individual expression, and Kyōsai’s skill and excellence stand out compared with Bainan and Kōson. Of further interest is the fact that the tales and illustrations in the sixth volume do not appear in the translation by Thomas James, and it is thought Watanabe used another source for the text. It would then follow that Kyōsai based his illustrations for this final volume on images from another edition that has yet to be verified.

[1] John Teniel was celebrated as the illustrator of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Although Aesop’s Fables was first published in 1848, the illustrations in the 1858 edition were largely revised, and it was this edition that Kyōsai is believed to have followed (Johnson 1983, 3).

書名通俗伊蘇普物語

執筆者及川茂　

1858年ロンドンで出版されたトーマス・ジェイムズThomas James英訳の『イソップ物語』（Publisher John Murray）を渡辺温Watanabe Tazunuが翻訳し、ジョン・テニエルJohn Teniel（1820–1914）の挿絵を基に河鍋暁斎、藤沢梅南Fujisawa Bainan（1835–1881）、榊篁邨Sakaki Kōson（1823–1894）が挿絵を描いた6冊本。[1] 挿絵は全部で35点あり、梅南が9図、篁邨が3図、残りの23図が暁斎による。

最初の3冊が明治5年に刊行され、後半3冊が明治6年に刊行された。訳者渡辺温は沼津の藩校の教師で、教科書として『イソップ物語』を刊行した。版元は渡部氏蔵梓とあり、自らが版元も兼ねていた。巻末広告には英文版の広告が見えるが、刊行には至らなかったようである。その代り漢訳版が刊行されている。

前半3冊の初版には一部淡彩が施されており、人体の肌色、夜空の青色などが色版で摺られている。後半3冊および後摺には彩色版は無い。梅南、篁邨の挿絵はテニエルの原画を忠実にコピーし、それを木版で表現したものだが、暁斎の挿絵は原画を尊重はしているが、大幅に独自の表現を織り込んで、もはや独立した挿絵になっている。他の二人の絵師と比較してみれば、暁斎の才能の卓越さが際立っている。なお本書第6巻の物語と挿絵はジェイムズ訳の英語版にはないので、渡部が他の版から翻訳したと思われる。また暁斎の挿絵も別の本をモデルとしたと思われるが、原書は未発見である。

[1] ジョン・テニエルは『不思議の国のアリス』の挿絵画家として有名である。この『イソップ物語』の初版は1848年だが、1858年版で挿絵の大幅な改定があり、この版を暁斎がモデルにしたと思われる (Johnson 1983、3)。

Select readings

Timothy Clark, Demon of Painting (London: British Museum, 1993), 124–25.

Jack Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, 2 vols. (London: Sotheby’s Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers, 1987), see esp. vol. 2, 938, 941.

Scott Johnson スコット・ジョンソン, “The Illustrations for a Victorian Aesop and a Meiji Isoppu” /「ヴィクトリア朝の『イソップ物語』と明治時代の『伊蘇普物語』、Kyōsai 『暁斎』 15 (1938), 3–40.

Roger S. Keyes, Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan (New York: New York Public Library in association with the University of Washington Press, 2006), 234–35.

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), 140–41.

Copies in other collections

British Museum, London
Kawanabe Kyōsai Memorial Museum, Warabi City