Nihon no sansui 日本の山水
FSC-GR-780.393.1-2
Commentary by Alicia Volk
Posted October 17, 2016

Nihon no sansui (Mountains and waters of Japan) is a poetic celebration of the Japanese landscape. [1] Published in June 1946, the anthology follows a long tradition of poetry and pictures rooted in Japan’s natural sites. Yet the historical context for its production—the occupation of the homeland by Allied forces following defeat in the Pacific War—surely added a sense of poignancy, even urgency, to the project.

The poet Inoue Yasufumi (1897–1973) and the printmaker and designer of the book, Onchi Kōshirō, were the main creative forces behind the volume. Twenty-three poems by twenty-one poets, including Itō Sei (伊藤整; 1905–1969), Kitahara Hakushū (北原白秋; 1885–1942), Murō Saisei (室生犀星; 1889–1962), Takamura Kōtarō (高村光太郎; 1883–1956), and Onchi, form the heart of the anthology. They represent such sites as Mount Fuji, Musashino, Mount Tsukuba, the Japan Sea, and the Seto Inland Sea.

Three multicolor woodcuts, all renderings of national park areas, are tipped in at roughly even intervals and bear no direct relationship to the poems they face. The first is by Yamaguchi Susumu, who was known for his rugged mountain landscapes, and pictures Tateyama, one of Japan’s “three holy mountains” (sanreizan 三霊山). The second is by Azechi Umetarō, who was an avid mountain climber; it is a vigorous portrayal of Kyushu’s Mount Aso, the largest active volcano in Japan. The final image by Maekawa Senpan depicts a pair of travelers on a path cut through Senjōgahara, a picturesque marshland in Nikkō that was popular as a hiking destination. An additional uncredited woodcut image of “mountains and water,” the “sansui” (山水) of the book’s title, graces the title page; it is presumably by Onchi.

Nihon no sansui was issued by the Tokyo-based Fugaku Honsha, a company with which Onchi was intimately involved. [2] Just one month earlier, for example, the publisher had released Onchi’s Nihon no hana (FSC-GR-780.500.1-2). The two books are so similar in design as to be taken for compendium volumes, but there are significant differences: Nihon no sansui contains far fewer images, it does not incorporate any English text, and it was therefore clearly not intended for a foreign audience. Perhaps the book’s creators viewed it as a symbolic gesture toward reclaiming Japan for the Japanese.

Evoking a shared national landscape, the unsigned postscript urges the reader: “Let us fix our eyes upon the mountains and rivers of beautiful Japan. We must enrich our hearts. Above all, we must now fight our way through various hardships. Let us cleanse the filth from our hearts with the mountains and rivers of beautiful Japan.”

This is one of two copies in the Pulverer collection; the other (FSC-GR-780.501.1-2) is better preserved.

Selected readings

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

Onchi Kōshirō, Hon no bijutsu 『本の美術』 (Tokyo: Seibundō Shinkōsha, 1952; repr. Tokyo: Nippon Nyūsusha, 1973).

Onchi Kōshirō, Onchi Kōshirō sōtei bijutsu ronshū: sōhon no shimei 『恩地孝四郎装幀美術論集：装本の使命』 (Tokyo: Abe Shuppan, 1992).

Onchi Kunio 恩地邦郎, Onchi Kōshirō: sōhon no waza 『恩地幸四郎：装本の業』 (Tokyo: Sanseidō, 1982).

Lawrence Smith, Japanese Prints during the Allied Occupation 1945–1952: Onchi Kōshirō, Ernst Hacker and the First Thursday Society (London: British Museum Press, 2002).

Alicia Volk, Made in Japan: The Postwar Creative Print Movement (Milwaukee: Milwaukee Art Museum, 2005).

Copies in other collections

British Library, London
British Museum, London
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Fukuoka Prefectural Library, Fukuoka
National Diet Library (NDL), Tokyo
Prince Chichibu Memorial Sports Library, Tokyo
Shimane Prefectural Library, Matsue
Shinshū University Library, Matsumoto
Tokyo Metropolitan Tama Library
Universitätsbibliothek der Humboldt, Universität zu Berlin

[1] The title page lists the longer title (Shikashū) Nihon no sansui 詞華集日本の山水 (An anthology of poetry: mountains and waters of Japan).

[2] According to Helen Merritt, Uemura Masuo (上村益郎), a publisher formerly with the Takamizawa Mokuhansha 高見沢木版社 (Takamizawa Woodblock Print Company), had evacuated next door to Onchi during the war; they collaborated on the formation of the Fugaku Honsha. Merritt 1990, 282–83.