Sōka ryakuga shiki 草花略画式
FSC-GR-780.341
Commentary by Hinohara Kenji

Posted March 10, 2107

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

This work is part of the set of ryakuga shiki (略画式), or works in an “abbreviated drawing or sketch style,” that began with Ryakuga shiki (FSC-GR-780.335), and continued with Chōjū ryakuga shiki (FSC-GR-780.342), Jinbutsu ryakuga shiki (FSC-GR-780.336), and Sansui ryakuga shiki (FSC-GR-780.337). However, there was a thirteen-year hiatus between the publication of the Sansui ryakuga shiki in 1800 and this book in 1813. The earlier ryakuga shiki volumes were released solely by Suharaya Ichibē (Shinshōdō 申椒堂), but perhaps due to a lack of funds Sōka ryakuga shiki was issued as a joint production with five publishers, including Suharaya Ichibē. The Pulverer copy retains its original title slip and is considered a first printing. A later printing from 1827 (Bunsei 10) has been confirmed; the publishers of this work were Tsuruya Kiemon (Senkakudō 僊鶴堂), Tsuruya Kinsuke (Sōkakudō 双鶴堂), and Kawachi Kihē (Sekigyokuho 積玉圃).

As the title Sōka ryakuga shiki (Abbreviated sketches of flowers) suggests, this book depicts flora using an abbreviated, simplified sketch-like (ryakuga) technique. The depictions include approximately ninety varieties of ornamental plants, including Pheasant’s eye (J. fukujosō 福寿草), Chinese peony (J. shakuyaku 芍薬), and Lily magnolia (J. mokuren 木蘭). Although this work has “ryakuga shiki” in its title, the images differ from earlier volumes in this group in terms of their layout on the page. Rather than a scattering of diverse motifs across an opening, the illustrations in this volume—the last three excluded—are generally shown in a larger scale, with one or two, and on occasion three, plants filling the entire picture plane. The method of drawing, which avoids the use of outlines and which accurately grasps the essential features of the flowers, creates a feel and appearance divergent from other volumes in the ryakuga shiki set (the exception here is Sansui ryakuga shiki). Furthermore, the images in the last three openings are composed such that the four or five flowers delineated are represented with only a few lines.

書名草花略画式
執筆者日野原健司

『略画式』『鳥獣略画式』『人物略画式』『山水略画式』に続いて刊行された略画式シリーズであるが、『山水略画式』が刊行された寛政12年（1800）から13年も経っており、また版元もかつては須原屋市兵衛単独だったのが、予算の不足を補うためか、須原屋を含む五軒の版元が協力し合って出版する形となっている。プルヴェラー本は外題簽も残り、初版と思われる。なお、文政10年（1827）の奥付のある後摺本（版元は鶴屋喜右衛門、鶴屋金助、河内屋木兵衛）の存在が確認されている。

本書の内容は、題名の通り草花を略画の技法によって描いた作品である。福寿草、芍薬、木蘭など、90種類弱の草花が描かれている。略画式と題しているが、それまでの１丁にたくさんのモチーフを散りばめる構成とは異なり、p. 54までは１丁の画面に草花を１種類か２種類（例外的に３種類の場合もある）大きく描いている。輪郭線は用いず、面的な描法で草花の特徴を正確に捉えるその描法は、『山水略画式』を除く他の略画式シリーズとは趣きを異にしている。またp.55から巻末までは、１丁の画面に４、５種類程度の草花を、わずかな描線だけで描くという構成となっている。

Selected readings:

Fukuoka University Library 福岡大学図書館, “Keisai・Shūho sakuhingun to kyōdo haikai no sekai. Wahon no bi”『蕙斎・秋圃作品群と郷土俳書の世界和本の美』, 2003.

Kano Hiroyuki 狩野博幸, “Kuwagata Keisei ehon no kentō”「鍬形蕙斎絵本の検討」, MUSEUM 338 『MUSEUM』338号 (May 1979), 18–28.

Nakada Katsunosuke仲田勝之助, Ehon no kenkyū『絵本の研究』(Tokyo: Yashio Shoten, 1950).

Uchida Kinzō 内田欽三, “250–251 Kitao Masayoshi’s Sōka ryakuga shiki” 「250～251 北尾政美　『草花略画式』」, in Puruverā korekushon 『プルヴェラー・コレクション』, vol. 14, Hizō ukiyo-e taikan『秘蔵浮世絵大観』, ed. by Narasaki Muneshige 楢崎宗重(Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1990), 267.

Copies in other collections:
Fukuoka University Library

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
National Institute of Japanese Literature, Tokyo
Ōta Memorial Museum of Art, Tokyo
Tokyo University of the Arts, University Library