Ehon Biwako 絵本琵琶湖

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Commentary by Asano Shūgō

Posted December 3, 2017

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

Ehon Biwako (A picture-book of Lake Biwa) was published in three volumes and printed in monochrome. Volume 1 begins with an introduction printed on a single page, followed by nine double-page illustrations and closes with a single-page fan picture. Volume 2 opens with a single-page fan picture, nine double-page illustrations; it concludes with a single-page fan image. Volume 3 begins with a single-page fan picture, nine double-page illustrations followed by a single-page colophon. A catalogue of picture-books (ehon zōsho mokuroku 画本蔵書目録) by the book publisher Bunkokudō (文刻堂) constitutes another page.

Setchūan IV (Ōshima Kanrai, 1748–1817) wrote the introduction in which he states, “mimicking the storytelling spirit of Murasaki Shikibu of old, and taking up several of the sixty chapters [I made] a book that mixes high (ga) and low (zoku)” and “added haiku poems from the Setchūan (雪中庵) school” (かの紫女の物語の心をやつし、六十帖のうちそこばくを拾ひて…雅俗うち混じたる草子[を作り]雪門のほ句（発句）をそへて). This tells us that Ehon Biwako reworked chapters from the eleventh-century Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) by Murasaki Shikibu into a contemporary context and added haiku by Setchūan-school poets. The first volume includes the Tale of Genji “Kiritsubo” to “Aoi” chapters (chs.1–9), the second volume from “Sakaki” to “Matsukaze” (chs. 10–18) and the third volume from “Usugumo” to “Kagaribi” (chs. 19–27).

The illustration for “Kiritsubo,” has a poem by the Kiritsubo emperor (vol. 1, pp. 4–5 on the website): “When you tied the cord/to hold the young boy’s hair,/did you pledge in your heart/that those two should be bound in a permanent union?” (itokinaki/hatsumotoyui ni/nagaki yo o/chigiru kokoro wa/musubikometsu ya いときなき/初もとゆひに/ながきよを/契る心は/むすびこめつや). [1] Kanrai selected twenty-six haiku by Setchūan-school students for the other illustrations. For example, Shigemasa creatively updates the illustration for the “Asagao” (ch. 20 in the Tale of Genji) in his depiction of a woman standing at the edge of a veranda in her nightclothes as she gazes out at the morning glories and uses a toothpick (vol. 2, pp. 4–5 on the website). A haiku by Usei (雨静) reading “Morning glory/its face indifferent/at daybreak” (あさがおをつれなしぐさの夜明かな) complements this image.

The highlight of Ehon Biwako lay in the portrayal of the voluminous, realistic female type characteristic of Shigemasa’s mature style throughout the book, and these figures offer a glimpse of Shigemasa’s superb ability to render his subjects in a contemporary context. The four fan images consist of classical scenes, such as that of Murasaki Shikibu crafting theTale of Genji, and are accompanied by haiku from Setchūan III 雪中庵三世 (Ōshima Ryōta 大島蓼太, 1718–1787).

Both the publisher’s catalogue at the end of the volume as well as the publication information in the colophon provides a reading of the title in furigana as Biwa no umi びわのうみ. The colophon contains an advertisement claiming that the chapters after “Nowaki” (野分,ch. 28) will be published in a second volume “in the spring of the Year of the Cock” (来酉の春). Unfortunately, this later volume never appeared, perhaps due to the fact that for readers the work strayed too far from the original Tale of Genji.

The Pulverer copy is a complete with the cover and title slip intact.

書名　絵本琵琶湖
執筆者浅野秀剛　

墨摺俳諧絵本三冊。上巻十一丁、中巻十丁、下巻十丁半。上巻、序一丁半、見開き図九、扇面図半丁、中巻、扇面図半丁、見開き図九、扇面図半丁、下巻、扇面図半丁、見開き図九、刊記半丁、「書肆文刻堂画本蔵書目録」半丁。序文を雪中庵四世大島完来（1748–1817）が執筆し、「かの紫女の物語の心をやつし、六十帖のうちそこばくを拾ひて」「雅俗うち混じたる草子」を作り「雪門のほ句（発句）をそへて」版行すると述べているように、源氏物語の各帖を当世風俗に変容して描き、そこに雪中庵一門の発句を添えたもの。「桐壺」から「葵」までが上巻、「榊」から「松風」まで中巻、「薄雲」から「篝火」までが下巻で、「桐壺」の図だけは、桐壺院の歌「いときなき初もとゆひにながきよを契る心はむすびこめつや」を載せ、他は完来率いる雪中庵一門の26句を配している。例えていえば、「朝顔」の図は、縁先に寝起き姿で立ち、楊枝を使いながら庭の朝顔を眺める女を描くというように、重政はかなり自由に当世化し、それに雨静の句「あさがおをつれなしぐさの夜明かな」が添えられている。量感豊かで現実味を増した、完成された重政様式の女性が全図に登場するさまは圧巻で、重政の当世化の妙も味わえる。4図ある扇面図は、紫式部が物語を案じている図などの古典的な絵とし、雪中庵三世大島蓼太（1718–1787）の句を添えている。書名の読みは、刊記と巻末蔵書目録の振り仮名により「びわのうみ」である。刊記で、「野分」以降の後編を「来酉の春」出すと予告しているが、『源氏物語』と離れすぎている点が嫌われたのか、残念ながら刊行されなかったようだ。表紙や題簽も備わった完全本。

Selected readings:
Hinohara Kenji 日野原健司, “Kitao Shigemasa no eiri haisho: samazama na gabun kōkyō”「北尾重政の絵入俳書―さまざまな画文交響―」, in Shika to imēji 『詩歌とイメージ』(Tokyo: Bensei Shuppan, 2013).

Kobayashi Tadashi 小林忠, “Explanatory Notes” (Kaisetsu 解説), in Puruverā korekushon『プルヴェラー・コレクション』, Hizō ukiyo-e taikan 『秘蔵浮世絵大観』, ed. Narasaki Muneshige 楢崎宗重, 16 vols. (Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1987–1991).

Copies in other collections:

British Museum, London

Kyushu University, Fukuoka

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Ōta Memorial Museum of Art, Tokyo

University of California, Los Angeles

[1] Translation from Helen Craig McCullough, trans., Genji & Heike: Selections from The Tale of Genji and The Tale of the Heike (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 38.