Kinai kenbutsu 畿内見物
FSC-GR-780.910.1-6

Commentary by Erin Schoneveld
Posted August 11, 2016

Kinai kenbutsu (Sightseeing in the Kinai region) belongs to the genre of “sketch-tour books.” The advent of printed sketch-tour books accompanied the travel-writing boom that emerged from the late Meiji (1868–1912) to the mid-Taishō (1912–1926) periods.

Many artists embarked on sketching trips (shasei kikō 写生紀行) during which they would record their travels through drawings and paintings. Much of the visual content produced on these journeys would then be published in the form of a pictorial guidebook or travelogue. Counted among the reasons for the popularity of these books were that they typically included a large number of beautiful color illustrations, employed advanced printing techniques, and were an artistic forum for the popularization of Western-style painting (yōga 洋画). They also significantly contributed to the later development of shin hanga 新版画 (new print) landscape prints. [1]

In appearance and composition Kinai kenbutsu is similar to Kinai angya (FSC-GR-780.925). Tokyo-based Kanao Tanejirō (1879–1947, Bun’endō), the publisher of these works, was an innovative and prolific publisher of travel guidebooks (ryokō annai 旅行案内).

Kinai (機内), or “capital region,” corresponds to the former provinces of Yamashiro, Yamato, Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi (present-day Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara prefectures, collectively known as the Kinki). The three volumes of Kinai kenbutsu focus on famous sites in Kyoto, Nara, and Osaka: Kyōto no maki and Yamato [Nara]no maki, volumes 1 and 2, respectively, date to 1911, and volume 3, Ōsaka no maki, from 1912.

The Bun’endō illustrator Nakazawa Hiromitsu 中沢弘光 (1874–1964) was responsible for the majority of the fifty-seven multicolored woodcuts and numerous lithographs as well as the covers.

The Kyoto and Yamato volumes contain photographs of the many paintings planned for release by Asai Chū, a pioneering artist of Western-style painting (yōga 洋画) during the Meiji period; however, Asai’s death in 1907 meant that their publication was never realized. The only print that Asai was able to contribute was the delightful multicolor woodcut foldout of a woman in a black kimono carrying a basket of firewood (Kyōto no maki, pp. 4–5).

The woodcuts for the Kyoto and Yamato volumes were designed by Nakazawa, carved by Igami Bonkotsu 伊上凡骨 (1875–1933), and printed by Nishimura Kumakichi 西村熊吉 (born 1862). Nishimura continued as the printer for the Osaka volume, with Hasegawa Kōkoku 長谷川香木, Maeda Kōji 前田剛二, and Chikamatsu Shigeru 近松茂 (all dates unknown) listed as the block-carvers. [2] The contributors to the text included Nakazawa in addition to noted male and female literary figures Takayasu Gekkō 高安月郊 (1869–1944), Susukida Kyūkin 薄田泣菫 (1877–1945), and Yosano Akiko 与謝野晶子 (1878–1942).

The quality and condition of the Pulverer copy is excellent, with no damage to the paper or fading of color.

Selected readings

Kendall H. Brown, Water and Shadow: Kawase Hasui and Japanese Landscape Prints (Richmond: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2014).

Scott Johnson, “The Artists Stretch Their Legs: The ‘Sketch-tour’ Books and Other Developments in Japanese Graphic Arts of the Early 20th Century,” Bulletin of the Kansai University Institute of Oriental and Occidental Studies, vol. 19 (1986), 21–39.

Scott Johnson, “Sketch-tour Books and Prints of the Early Twentieth Century,” Andon 37 (1990), 3–33.

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

Center for Research Libraries, Chicago (Yamato no maki)
National Diet Library (NDL), Tokyo (Yamato no maki)
School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS), University of London Library (Kyōto no maki)
Stanford University Library (Kyōto no maki)
Waseda University Library, Tokyo (Yamato no maki)

[1] Johnson 1990, 21–25.

[2] Ibid.