Tōsei fūzoku gojūban uta-awase 当世風俗五十番歌合

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Commentary by Erin Schoneveld

Posted August 11, 2016

The two-volume anthologyTōsei fūzoku gojūban uta-awase (Fifty modern genre scenes compared in verse) is a skillful play of image and text conceived by the Western-style (yōga 洋画) painter Asai Chū and his close friend, the poet Ikebe Tōen (Ikebe Yoshikata 池辺義象; 1864–1923), respectively. Ikebe’s text is delivered in the thirty-one syllable comic poetic form called kyōka (狂歌), or “crazy verse,” and draws on the literary convention known as shokunin zukushi uta-awase (職人歌合せ), or “amateur poetry contest,” in which each poem comprises two parts. In shokunin zukushi uta-awase one contestant writes the right verse and the other writes the left, and the merits of the two are then debated. Rather than intellectual elites or nobility, however, the participants in these contests hail from various backgrounds, with the term shokunin (職人), or “craftspeople,” subsuming the “commoner” class of merchants and artisans.

Asai and Ikebe’s book updates this convention for a Meiji-period (1868–1912) audience. It humorously critiques the tension between modern (i.e., Meiji) and traditional Japanese culture by juxtaposing individuals engaged in diverse métiers changed or influenced by the modernizing and Westernizing trends during the Meiji. The result is at times a comic, at times a tongue-in-cheek, commentary on the challenges that faced the Meiji-period Japanese.

This work is Asai Chū’s best-known printed book. Jack Hillier maintains that the style of Asai’s graphic work in this book imitates Western “satirical or comic periodicals,” with the most likely source being the German magazine Simplicissimus (1896–1967; hiatus 1944–54). [1] Asai’s illustrations picture two contrasting individuals and their shared occupation, with Ikebe’s text on the facing page divided into the sections with the headings (read right to left): “left” (hidari 左), “right” (migi 右), and “judgment” (han 判).

The wit underscoring Asai and Ikebe’s collaboration is evident, for instance, in the image and text on the opening of pages 56–57 (genre scene no. 24) of the first volume that represent the two aspects of the “artist.” The modern Western-style painter (seiyō gashi 西洋畫師) is seen striding in the background, carrying his easel, brushes, and canvas. The traditional Japanese-style painter (nihon gashi 日本畫師) is shown kneeling in the foreground, brush in hand and paper before him as he possibly contemplates his next extemporaneous ink play.

The accompanying poems reveal that the Western-style artist attempts to convey realism in painting (the “left”), whereas his Japanese-style counterpart is more focused on expressing the essence of the subjects (the “right”). In order to achieve a realistic portrayal, the Western-style artist hires a model so he can perfect the techniques of light and shadow. Much to his chagrin, however, the model tells him that she does not like his shading technique. The Japanese-style artist does not care for realism, but he wrestles with how to render the tail of a crow in his painting of the bird. Unsuccessful, he settles instead on a vague representation.

The winner of the competition is declared to be the Western-style artist because his Japanese-style colleague is trying too much to depict the crow’s tail (the “judgment”). While the Japanese-style artist ponders further on how to achieve this, the Western-style artist endeavors to complete his own painting, despite the criticism from his model.

The quality of the Pulverer copy is excellent.

Selected readings
Jack Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, 2 vols. (London: Sotheby’s Publications by Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., 1987), see esp. vol. 2, 996–97.

Jack Hillier, The Japanese Picture Book: A Selection from the Ravicz Collection (New York: Abrams, 1991).

C. H. Mitchell, with the assistance of Osamu Ueda, The Illustrated Books of the Nanga, Maruyama, Shijo and Other Related Schools of Japan. A Biobibliography (Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1972).

Helen Merritt, Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: The Early Years (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1990).

Helen Merritt and Nanako Yamada, Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900–1975 (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1992).

Copies in other collections
Iwase Bunko Library, Nishio City
Portland Museum of Art
Ravicz Collection, Chiba City Museum of Art

[1] Hillier 1987, vol. 2, 997.