Bunmei yokyō 文明余響

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Commentary by Oikawa Shigeru

Posted December 6, 2016

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

Bunmei yokyō is a two-volume collection of “reverberations” or “articles” (yokyō) about various domestic events that did not belong to the canon of official histories during the era of “civilization and enlightenment” (bunmei kaika 文明開化) that spanned from the end of the Edo to the early Meiji period. With this collection, author Mio Shigesada sought to demonstrate how the Japanese people would benefit from the modernization and reform that characterized the Meiji period. Included among the numerous accounts is the story of a child prodigy from Kazusa; anecdotes about the pro-Western thinker and politician Sakuma Shōzan 佐久間象山 (1811–1864); the death of the pro-imperial intellectual Yoshida Shōin 吉田松陰 (1830–1859), who was executed following a failed assassination plot on the servant of the Japanese chief minister Ii Naosuke 井伊直弼 (1815–1860); and the aftermath of the assassination of Ii Naosuke outside the Sakurada Gate of Edo Castle.

The texts present a range of literary forms, from classical prose (kobun 古文) and Japanese poetry (waka 和歌) to verse written in classical Chinese (kanshi 漢詩). Interspersed within the text are images by seven artists that depict a selection of these incidents. In volume one these comprise “The Episode of the Wife Who Sent Waka Poems to Her Kyoto-Bound Husband” (Kobayashi Eitaku); “Landscape View of China” (Fukushima Ryūho); “The Incident Outside Sakurada Gate” (Kawakami Tōgai and Kawanabe Kyōsai); “Winter Views of Echizen” (Yasuda Rōzan); “Ryūkyū Emissaries before Mount Fuji” (Shibata Zeshin); and “A Picture of Leaving the Priesthood” (Kawanabe Kyōsai). In the second volume are the compositions “Landscape View of Tanba” (Hattori Hazan); “Righteous Women Fugitives” (Tsukioka Yoshitoshi); and “A Picture of Priest Gesshō and Saigō Takamori Attempting Suicide by Drowning” and “A Prostitute Weeping Before the Ghost of Her Lover” (Kawanabe Kyōsai).

Mio Shigesada wrote several books on pedagogy, but little is known about him. Fukuba Bisei (1831–1907) and Shunzan Sanshi （Koyama Tomohiro; 1827–1892) wrote the preface. All three men were active in the “Revere the Emperor” movement (Kinō-ha 勤王派), and they served in the government following the Meiji Restoration (Meiji ishin 明治維新) in 1868.

書名文明余響

執筆者　及川茂　

本書は幕末から明治初期にかけて、文明開化期の「余響」、つまり歴史の表に現れないような国内で起きた様々な事件に関する記事を集めたもので、著者は文明開化という時代がいかに人民のために有益であるかと言うことを主張している。上総の神童の話、佐久間象山の逸話、吉田松陰の憤死、桜田門外の変の結末など多くの記事が上下二巻に収録されている。形式も多様で古文体もあれば、和歌や漢詩などもある。その中の幾つかの事件に関して数点の挿絵が描かれている。「上巻」の「上京した夫へ和歌を送る話」の挿絵は小林永濯、「中国の景色」を福島柳圃、「桜田門外の変」を川上冬崖と暁斎、「越前の雪景色」を安田老山、「富士山を前にした琉球の使い」を柴田是真、「僧脱仏門の図」を暁斎、「下巻」の「丹波の景色」を服部波山、「牢抜けの義婦」を月岡芳年、「僧月照、西郷隆盛と入水の図」を暁斎、「愛人の霊前に泣く娼婦」を暁斎が、それぞれ描いている。

著者の三尾重定は教育関係の著書を幾つか書いているが生涯等は不明である。序文は福羽美静Fukuba Bisei（1831–1907）、春山散史Shunzan Sanshi（小山朝弘Koyama Tomohiro）（1827–1892）が書いている。いずれも勤王派の人物で、維新後は明治政府に勤めた。

Selected readings

Jack Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, 2 vols. (London: Sotheby’s Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers, 1987), see esp. vol. 2, 938–43.

Yamaguchi Seiichi 山口静一, Kawanabe Kyōsai sashi-e 『河鍋暁斎挿絵』, 2 vols. (Warabi City: Kawanabe Kyōsai Memorial Museum, vol. 1, 1985; vol. 2, 2011), vol. 2, 215–17.

Copies in other collections

British Museum, London
Kawanabe Kyōsai Memorial Museum, Warabi City