Ehon musha waraji 絵本武者鞋

FSC-GR-780.352.1-2

Commentary by Iwakiri Yuriko
Posted April 19, 2017
Original unedited text in Japanese follows

Ehon musha waraji (A picture book of warriors’ sandals) has no colophon listing the details of publication. However, the naming of the ukiyo-e artist, Kitao Shigemasa, as the illustrator of this work is mentioned in the book’s 1787 preface by Yadoya no Meshimori (Ichikawa Masamochi), the head of the Gogawa kyōka poetry group in Edo.

From the publication in 1767 of his Ehon Tōnomine (絵本多武峯) until the end of his career Shigemasa designed some fifteen differently themed warrior picture books (musha ehon 武者絵本) that gather together traditional warrior themes. Of these, Ehon musha waraji, a beautifully illustrated book printed in color, can also be appreciated for its individual images.

In 1786 (Tenmei 6) the publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō (Kōshodō耕書堂) issued Ehon yaso Ujigawa 絵本八十宇治川 (A picture book of eighty warrior families), a warrior picture book that combined Shigemasa’s illustrations with kyōka poems by various poets. Ehon musha waraji continues this arrangement in that it is a warrior picture book designed by Shigemasa and published by Tsutaya. The book’s production in color also offers a glimpse into Tsutaya’s ambitious efforts as a publisher.

The various texts of this book reveal two different sequences in the arrangement of the illustrations. A copy in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2013.808), which is thought to be a first printing, is believed to represent the original order. The publication advertisement for Tsutaya Jūzaburō at the end of the Pulverer copy lists books from 1790 (Kansei 2) such as the 1790 kyōka books by Kitagawa Utamaro, Fugen zō 普賢像 and Gin sekai (FSC-GR-780.318). This suggests that the Pulverer copy was a reprint made in or after 1790. At this time, it seems that several pictures were switched during production such that the grand scene of warriors charging into battle at Uji River—an image intended as a double-page opening—has been divided up. The result is two separate images of Sasaki Shirō Takatsuna (佐々木四郎高綱) and Kajiwara Kagesue (梶原源太景季) (vols. 1 and 2, pp. 7 [left] and 2 [right], respectively).

The subjects selected for this book would have been well known at this time, even without titles or accompanying text. The names of the military leaders featured in each illustration in the Pulverer copy have been hand-written in ink on the image.

書名絵本武者鞋

執筆者岩切友里子

『絵本武者鞋』には刊記を記した奥付がないが、1787年に書かれた宿屋飯盛の序文には、絵師である北尾重政の名が示されている。

重政は1767年の『絵本多武峯』に始まって、晩年までに伝統的な画題の武者絵を集めた武者づくしの絵本を15種ほど描いているが、中でも彩色摺の『絵本武者鞋』は1枚絵としても鑑賞できる美しい絵本である。

版元の蔦屋重三郎は、天明6年（1786）に、重政画の狂歌入りの武者絵本『絵本八十宇治川』を出版している。本書はこれに続く蔦屋出版の重政の武者絵本であり、彩色摺に仕立てている点から、蔦屋の意欲的な取り組みが窺われる。

諸本の図の順序は2種の異なるものがあり、初版本と見られるThe Metropolitan Museum本の順序が本来のものと考えられる。本コレクション本の巻末の蔦屋重三郎の出版広告には、寛政２年（1790）に刊行された喜多川歌麿画の絵入狂歌本『普賢像』、『銀世界』などの書名があることから、1790年以降に再版されたものと見られる。この時に数図が入れ替えられて出版されたようで、見開きとなるべき宇治川先陣争いの佐々木四郎高綱と梶原源太景季の図が離れてしまっている。選ばれている図は、タイトルやテキストがなくとも、当時は一般的に周知されていた画題であった。本コレクション本には、各図に武将の名前が墨で書き入れられている。

Copies in other collections:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

National Diet Library, Tokyo