(Seirō ehon) Nenjū gyōji 青楼絵本年中行事

FSC-GR-780.319.1-2

Commentary by Julie Nelson Davis

Posted July 13, 2017

This title is the monochrome printing of the (Seirō ehon) Nenjū gyōji (Annual events of the “Azure Towers” illustrated) issued in 1804 (Kyōwa 4) by Kitagawa Utamaro) and text by Jippensha Ikku. The Pulverer Collection also includes the full-color version (FSC-GR-780.327.1-2). As the block holder for this title, publisher Kazusaya Chūsuke issued both the full color and monochrome variations. The two versions have the same colophon information, and it has generally been assumed that the two titles were released at the same time, indicating that the publisher regarded the project as likely to achieve high sales. However, in his role as block holder it would have been within Kazusaya Chūsuke’s purview to republish either work later without requiring an alteration to the colophon. This leaves open the possibility that the monochrome version may be a later imprint to fulfill continued demand.

The block wear in the monochrome printing suggests that the key blocks were fairly well used by the time the imprint was issued. The pages of the book also reveal considerable use and loss. The smudged (and thus somewhat illegible) black seal on the colophon page may be that of a lending library from the period. Some of this wear may be due to its having been lent extensively and thumbed heavily during reading.

What makes this particular copy fascinating is that it is not all printed—parts of it are manuscript, rather impressively rendered in a manner consistent with the 1804 printing. Two sheets of the book have been replaced (see sheets 1 and 21, pp. 1–2 and 48–49 on the website) by its early twentieth-century owner, Kurokawa Mamichi (黒川真道, 1866–1925), whose vermilion rectangular seal is visible in several places throughout both volumes (e.g., vol. 1, page 1, lower right). On the inside cover of the back of the second volume, Mamichi writes that he has reassembled this book, as would anyone that loves books, dating the inscription to the first month of 1916 (Taishō 5) (see the inscription in the “Contents” section for this title). His copied pages are so close to the original that it is at first difficult to detect. However, details of line work, and most tellingly, the line enclosing the text on pages 1 and 2, reveal that these were written by hand.

Kurokawa Mamichi descended from a prominent line of intellectuals committed to documenting Japanese intellectual tradition; he was the son of Kurokawa Mayori(黒川真頼, 1829–1906)and grandson of Kurokawa Harumura (黒川春村, 1799–1866). All three generations were renowned scholars, antiquarians, and book collectors. Mamichi was himself an important author and editor of a number of field-changing works on Japanese culture, tea, literature, and illustrated books, including the Nihon fūzoku zue 日本風俗図絵 (12 vols.). The Kurokawa family’s book collection once numbered more than 80,000 volumes. [1] Some two-thirds of this collection was destroyed in the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923. Many of the remaining volumes were sold off by the family after the end of the Pacific War (World War II). Parts of the Kurokawa collection are now held by Meiji University (4,852 books), Notre Dame Seishin Women's University (3,387 volumes), Jissen Women's University (2,286 books), The University of Tokyo (900 volumes), Nihon University (500 volumes), the Imperial Household Agency (399 volumes), and the Kiryū Municipal Library (various). The subjects of these books include economics, politics, law, poetry, travel, linguistics, fiction, Buddhist studies, and more, demonstrating the great range of these intellectuals.[2]

Selected readings:
Asano Shūgō and Timothy Clark, The Passionate Art of Kitagawa Utamaro, 2 vols. (Tokyo: Asahi Shinbun; London: The Trustees of the British Museum, 1995).

Julie Nelson Davis, Utamaro and the Spectacle of Beauty (London: Reaktion Books; Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2007).

Kokugakuin Daigaku Toshokan国学院大学図書館, ed., Kurokawa Bunko「黒川文庫」, Kokugakuin Daigaku Toshokan shūzō Shintō shoseki kaisetsu mokuroku『国学院大学図書館収蔵神道書籍解説目録』(Tokyo: Kokugakuin Daigaku Toshokan, 1960).

Christophe Marquet, ed., L’Almanach des maisons vertes: Utamaro (Arles: Editions Philippe Picquier; Paris: Institut national d'histoire de l'art (INHA), 2008).

Suzuki Jūzō, ed., Seirō ehon nenjū gyōji『青楼絵本年中行事』, 3 vols. (Tokyo: Jitsugyō no Nihonsha, 1975) (two-volume facsimile with supplemental explanatory volume).

[1] http://tksosa.dijtokyo.org/?page=collection_detail.php&p_id=626&lang=ja

[2] For more information on the history of the Kurokawa family collection, see Kokugakuin Daigaku Toshokan, ed. 1960.