Ehon kotoba no hana 絵本詞の花

FSC-GR-780.320.1-2

Commentary by Julie Nelson Davis

Posted September 30, 2015

Tsutaya Jūzaburō began his career as a publisher of guidebooks to the Yoshiwara licensed pleasure district. His shop was located just outside its Great Gate (see commentary for FSC-GR-780.167.1-3). There he associated with poets, writers, artists, and others who met in the licensed quarter, and he became a member of Edo’s “great sophisticates” (dai-tsū). He was even portrayed as such in an illustrated book of these notables. [1] In 1783 he purchased not only the shop of Moriya Kihei, located in the center of Edo in the Nihonbashi district, but also its inventory and associated publishing rights. From this location he promoted some of ukiyo-e’s most important writers and illustrators, including the artist Kitagawa Utamaro. From 1786 to 1790, Tsutaya sponsored Utamaro in producing thirteen poetry albums, several erotic works (many of which are featured in this collection), and many sheet prints.

This illustrated book features a selection of kyōka, or “mad poetry.” Based upon the thirty-one-syllable form used for waka poetry, kyōka transformed that precedent using humor, wit, and parody. Kyōka poetry groups privately commissioned illustrated books to commemorate their activities. Yadoya no Meshimori (“Serving at the Inn,” the nom de plume of poet and innkeeper Ishikawa Masamochi) wrote the preface to this volume. It begins with a historicizing reference: “Ukiyo-e has Hishikawa as its progenitor, Ebisu-uta [kyōka] has Kyōgetsu as its master.” By referring to artist Hishikawa Moronobu 菱川師宣 (1618–1694) and poet Reizei Tamemori 冷泉為守 (1265–1328), Meshimori places the artist and poets within the larger canon of visual and literary arts. Meshimori further noted that Tsutaya, wearing “glasses unclouded,” has drawn poems “down from Kyōgetsu” and pictures “up from Hishikawa” to make this selection. This phrasing suggests that the publisher acted as the compiler for the project.

The two-volume work features fifteen illustrations, each including one or two poems. Several of the poems were written by the same contributors to other Tsutaya and Utamaro poetry books held in this collection. Many of the images refer to “famous places” (meisho 名所) in the city of Edo that were appreciated for seasonal associations and activities. Fireworks at Ryōgoku bridge, bush-clover in the moonlight at Ryūganji, plum blossoms at Kameidō Shrine, and wisteria in bloom at Enkōji are shown here, and were by now regarded as among Edo’s “famous places.” Other images, such as a view of a veranda on which two women are flanked by decorations for the Tanabata Festival, or patrons at a restaurant waiting for soup made of puffer fish, do not refer to specific sites but rather to seasonal moments and are treated as genre scenes. The licensed pleasure district, the Yoshiwara, is depicted in pictures of people viewing cherry blossoms from a second-floor veranda, making a farewell at the dock at Sanbashi, and seeing dawn break on the Dike of Japan just beyond the quarter. The daybreak image includes a witty poem by Hizanoue Konoshō on the trouble of finding one’s clothes in the dark: “Parting the morning after, digging through pile after pile to dress one’s body, and then issuing forth—the district at dawn” (きぬぎぬを/かさねがさねし/身なりしも/今ぬきすつる/里のあかつき).

The artist’s signature is not present in this copy, nor is he mentioned elsewhere. An attribution to Utamaro, however, may be soundly made by comparing this volume with other copies. This work typifies his style in the later 1780s. The copy held in the British Museum (accession number 1953,0411,0.2.1), which appears to be from the first printing, includes a cover wrapper bearing the title as well as “drawn by Kitagawa Utamaro” and is dated in the preface as Tenmei 7 (1787).

According to the colophon date of Kansei 9 (1797), the Pulverer copy is a later printing that was published in Osaka by Akashiya Ihachi (see left column of the colophon). The final page also includes a catalogue of the then-current holdings of the Eijudō in the role of block-holder for these titles. (Eijudō was the studio name used by Akashiya’s shop in Osaka and should not be confused with the studio name used by the Edo publisher Nishimuraya Yohachi.) This inventory list includes the title for this book, Ehon kotoba no hana, in the lower register, second from the left.

Another printing of this book, also dated 1797, is held by the library of Tohoku University. It has a slightly different advertisement, with the inventory given to Mankidō (萬棋堂) and the publisher listed as Izumiya Genshichi (和泉屋源七). It seems likely that the names of the studio and publisher were recut for what may have been another printing of this title. These later examples demonstrate that it was profitable for Osaka publishers to acquire the blocks for these printings. That attests not only to the renown of the poets and artist but also to the strength of the market for illustrated poetry.

Selected readings:

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

Julie Nelson Davis, “Tsutaya Jūzaburō, Master Publisher,” in Julia Meech and Jane Oliver, eds., Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings, 1680–1860 (New York: Asia Society and Japanese Art Society of America; Seattle: University of Washington Press), 115–41.

Suzuki Toshiyuki 鈴木俊幸, Tsutaya Jūzaburō 『蔦屋重三郎』 , vol. 9 of Kinsei bungaku kenkyū sōsho 近世文学研究叢書 (Tokyo: Wakakusa shobō, 1998).

See also:

http://www.geocities.jp/ezoushijp/kotobanohana.html (accessed July 8, 2015).

Copies in other collections:

Art Institute of Chicago

British Museum, London

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Berlin

National Diet Library

Tohoku University (1797 printing)

[1] Koikawa Harumachi, Yoshiwara daitsū-e (Edo: Iwatoya Genpachi, 1784). 恋川春町、『吉原大通会』、岩戸屋源八、天明４年。