Hibbett. The Role of The Ukiyo-Zoushi Illustrator

The Role of the Ukiyo-Zoshi Illustrator
Author(s): Howard S. Hibbett

Source: Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 13, No. 1/2 (Apr. - Jul., 1957), pp. 67-82
Published by: Sophia University
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The Role of theUkiyo-zoshiIllustrator
By Howard S. Hibbett, Kyoto
It is perhaps one of the paradoxes of Japanese art that

decorative,highly abstract graphic techniques have flourished
withoutovershadowinga fundamentaldelightin the illustration
of literary themes. In its decorative aspect this art has won
admirationeverywhere.Unfortunately, the pleasures of viewing
it in its literarycontexthave been largely reservedto the Japa-
nese themselves. Yet, as Yashiro Yukioa has pointed out, "the
illustrationofliterarythemesis so muchan obsessionthatanyone
who surveys the art of Japan cannot fail to be struck by the
developmentthroughoutit-ranging fromthe actual incorpora-
tion of the literary text itself into the picture to the most
advanced and harmonioussymbolism-ofan illustrativequality."'
To ignorethe rich literaryassociationsof Yamato-ebpainting,in
particular,would be an impoverishmentalmost as severe as to
regard calligraphypurelyas an art of abstractdesign.
From the viewpointof literaryscholarshipas well, a great
deal can be learned by a study of the graphic arts. Not only is
Japanese literatureespecially rich in visual imagery,which yet
may leave much to the imagination,but it oftenconveys with
greatsubtletyeffectsof mood and symbol-effectsthat are more
easily recognizedwhen translatedinto a different mediurn.Thus,
the atmosphereof the Genji monogataricand the leisurelymove-
ment of its involutedsyntax have their analogies in the dense
1 Nihon bijutsu no tokushitsu E (T6ky6, 1943), pp.

259-260.
a ) ta b *1zr c AK
68 HowardS. Hibbett
color harmoniesand restrained,static compositionof the Genji
scrolls; its natural symbolismis eloquently expressed in such
illustrationsas that for the Minoria chapter,in which we see
autumn grasses bending before the cold wind as the dying
Murasakibsits up for a last look at her garden. Other literary
effects,fromthe sweep and glitterof the war tales to the comic
realism of medieval popular literature,are vividly seen in later
scrolls. Even illustrationin its narrow sense occupies an im-
portantplace in the historyof Japanese art.
Whatseemsmoresurprisingis thatthisclose alliance between
Japanese art and literaturesurvived the rise of printingand
the growthof an active book trade. In spite of a rampantcom-
mercialism, book illustration became an important field for
artisticexpression.And it,too,deservesthe attentionof students
of literatureas well as of the graphicarts: even its modestlater
examples yield far more than the literal details of mannersand
customsof which they are an indispensablesource. Indeed, all
the manyvarietiesof popular Tokugawacfictionare more or less
dependent-sometimes to the degree of parasitism-on their
illustrations.By a furtherparadoxical minglingof art and liter-
ature,the seventeenth-century technologicalrevolutionin print-
ing had reinforcedthe long traditionof manuscriptillustration.
The refinementof woodblock printing only led to superior
reproductionof calligraphicand pictorialdesign: a novel without
illustrationswould have seemed almost as lifeless as one which
did not show,in its printedtext,the brushworkof a skilled calli-
grapher. To glance througha representativecollection of first
editionsof Tokugawa novels is to see, throughthe illustrations
alone, a visual equivalent to literaryhistorythat could surely
not be matchedforany otherperiod of world literature.It is no
coincidencethat the developmentof ukiyo-ed print-making, so
intimatelyrelated to book production,may similarlybe traced
fromits beginningsin the vigorous,still fairly unsophisticated
illustrationsof the early Tokugawa kana-z6shie,enlivenedby an
emergingrealism,to the decadent, sensuous mood of the nine-
teenth-century ukiyo-eportraitsof Edo rakes and courtesansand
of the ninjobonf school of novel-writingwhich described theJr
complicated love affairs. A product of the same milieu, the
"pictures of the floatingworld" were admirably suited to its
a a& bg j c tJli d gj e LiGif:-f i A;W*
The Role of the Ukiyo-zoshi Illustrator 69
literature. The ukiyo-e style reflectedthe discriminatingtaste

of a public forwhich the realisticnovelistsalso wrote.
In this as well as in otherstyles,Tokugawa book illustration
contributedmuch more than a pleasant accompanimentto stated
literarythemes. Changingtechniquesofnarrativeand descriptive
writingwere enhancedby complementary pictorialeffects;often
the writer was content to leave to the artist those details of
physicalappearance,costume,setting,even of dramaticrelation-
ships betweenhis characters,which mighthave slowed down the
tempoofhis prose. If,as in the little"yellow-covers"(kiby6shia)
of the later eighteenthcentury,the pictures sometimes very
nearly swallowed up theirtexts,which merely filled in empty
spaces in the design,still most formsof Tokugawa book illustra-
tion have managed to avoid the dangers of overpoweringthe
texts or of being effacedby them. Possibly because of its dual
inclinationstoward the decorativeand the literary,Japanese art
has been remarkablysuccessfulin achieving,within its limits,
"the imaginativetype of illustrationwhich rests upon the text
but is itselfa sort of extensionof the text because it says thii-gs
visually that are not possible to words."2With this "extension
of the text,"then,the giftedillustratoroffersat once a pictorial
suite delightfulin itself,far moreso as seen in its propercontext,
and a useful commentaryto the book he has illustrated.
Of course,like any commentator, he may have an annoying
habit of overlookingdifficult problems,or of marringhis workby
lapses, if not downrightmistakes.3Still, thereremainsthe value
of a contemporaryinterpretationwhich,like a translationfrom
one language to another,must oftenbe specificon pointsleftby
the author in a convenienthaze. Particularlyis this so with the
class of fictionknown as ukiyo-z6shib, that buoyant, complex,
quasi-aristocraticgenre createdby Ihara Saikakuc (1642-1693)in
his last decade and kept alive for about half a century. The
pleasures and difficulties of these books make the studyof their
illustrationsespecially rewarding. Again, it seems scarcelv co-
incidentalthatSaikaku, an amateurukiyo-eartistof considerable
2 David Bland, The Illustration of Books (London, 1953), p. 12.

3 Cf. Kimura Sutez6 * , "Saikaku zakko" NW -, in Saikaku
kenkyu2RqW 9 (1956), pp. 154-156.
a =Og b jt c *
70 HowardS. Hibbett
ability,should have illustratedseveral of his own novels.4 These
early ukiyo-z6shiwere designed with a care for visual beauty
that stemsdirectlyfromthe manuscripttradition.In them,and
even in the inferiorones of the mid-eighteenth century,we find
the resultof a harmoniouscombinationof effortbetween author,
artist,calligrapher,engraver,and printer,collaboratingunder
the directionof the publisher. Often the same man filledmore
than one of these roles: anyone who could write was something
of a calligrapher,and able to draw with more or less facility.
Since a book would be firstjudged by its illustrations,its author
was likelyto pay close attentionto theirquality and suitability.
There was a strictconnoisseurshipbehindthe casual air so much
admired and cultivatedin these circles.
Yet when we come to examine ukiyo-zoshi illustrationsin
theirliterarycontext,we find,as may well have been expected,
thatthe comparisonyieldsno easy patternofcorrespondencesand
divergences.Even withinthe limitedconventionsof the ukiyo-e
style of the period,differencesof individualtalent and tempera-
ment account for a variety of illustrativetechniques. The few
examples that follow have been chosen,fromtwo of the major
novels of Saikaku, because theyappear to exemplifysome of the
chief relationshipsbetween author and artist. The two novels
are: K6shoku ichildaiotokoa (The Man Who Spent His Life in
Love), firstpublished in 1682; and K6shoku ichidai onnab (The
Woman Who Spent Her Life in Love), of 1686. Besides their
intrinsicliterary value, these early ukiyo-z6shihave also the
merit,a considerableone in the eyes ofliteraryhistoriansat least,
of having influencedmany later works.
This is especially true of Ichidai otoko. Its publication in
Osaka in 1682 begins the standard ukiyo-z6shichronology;so
highlywas it esteemed that in 1684 an Edo publisher issued a
pirated edition with illustrationsby Hishikawa Moronobuc (d.
1694?). These may be usefullycompared with the illustrations
4 Saikaku's euvre as an illustrator includes a number of haikai

collections, along with at least one ukiyo-zoshi (Kindai yasa-inja i{-rflI
MZ-) by another author. Of Saikaku's major ukiyo-z6shi, three were
illustrated by himself: Koshoku ichidai otoko (discussed below), Shoen
6kagami M-MRX (1684), and Saikaku shokoku-banashi EJgUW' (1685).
The two later works are among those with texts in his calligraphy.
a ot-t4- b &fft-t-* c n u..
The Role of the Ukiyo-z6shiIllustrator 71
which Saikaku himselfdid for the original edition. Although

Moronobu follows Saikaku's designs, he skilfullyadapts them
to his own style. They thus stand somewherebetweenthe witty,
amateurish,closely text-boundmannerof Saikaku and the more
decorative,freermanner of most professionalillustrators.That
the originalillustrationswere followedso closely suggestsmore
than the sheer convenienceof the method. The pictorialtale was
itselfan importantpart of the book. Indeed, for a picture-book
editionof 1686Moronobuprepareda new seriesof large,carefully
done double-pageillustrations, in comparisonwithwhichthe text,
drasticallycut and printedat the top of the page, occupies a very
miinorposition.5But these too are only more elaboratevariations
on Saikaku's designs.
Ichidai otoko is of course a loosely strung togetherset of
improbablebut extremelyvaried amorousadventures,unifiednot
so muchbecause theyare attributedto one man,the indefatigable
Yonosukea,as because theyembodya neat formalpatternderived
fromhaikaiblinked-verseand the popular guidebooksof the day.
Each of the fifty-four chaptersis only a few pages long; each, as
a rule,beginswitha rhetoricalflourishin the allusive haikai vein,
tells an amusinganecdote,and ends in a witticism;each is inter-
spersed with miniaturegenre scenes depictingthe mannersand
customs encounteredby Yonosuke in his travels. Since these
scenes are evoked with a stricthaikai economyof language,they
leave much to the imagination-or to the descriptivepowers of
the illustrator.Often the point of an anecdote is sharpenedby
referenceto the illustration.
For example,the illustrationto the second chapterof Ichidai
otoko (Book I, Section 2) clearly heightensthe effectof a witty
but concise, elliptical account of a comic sequence of indiscre-
tions.6 In this chapter Yonosuke, aged eiight,continues his
precociouseducationin gallantry. It is the day of the Tanabatac
Festival, in early autumn. Saikaku begins by mentioningthe
customof cleaninglamps, oil containers,desks, and inkstonesat
this time; he goes on, by a chain of allusions and associations,to
5 On this edition see Richard Lane, "Postwar Japanese Studies of

the Novelist Saikaku," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 18 (1955),
pp. 197-198.
6 Cf. Teruoka Yasutaka WKRS, Kinsei bungaku r^ku
no ternxb
*0:),-T (T6ky6, 1953), pp. 202-203.
a utLeA. b f c -ELr7
72 Howard S. Hibbett
the idea that Yonosuke was at the proper age to take up serious
study. Fortunately, there is a monk eminent in calligraphy who
lives near the aunt's house in Yamazakia where Yonosuke is
staying; there is also (we later learn) an older cousin named
O-Sakae. But Yonosuke startles his teacher by asking him to write
a letter at his dictation. The teacher agrees, and finds himself
writing what sounds oddly like a request for a rendezvous. Home
again, toward evening, Yonosuke happens to overhear the maids
chattering among themselves. In customary fashion, the scene
begins abruptly and includes scarcely enough detail to allow the
reader to visualize it.
silks thathad been stretched

were unfastening
The servant-girls
out to dry. "That gaudy thing belongs to the young mistress," one of
them said. "But whose is the yellowish kimono with the pattern of
nadeshikoc flowers?"7
"That's Master Yonosuke's nightgown!" was the answer.
Another maid began hastily folding it up. "In that case," she
remarkedwaspishly,"I suppose it oughtto be washed in the water
of the Capital."
Yonosuke happened to overhear. "If I let you touch my dirty
clothes, it's only because a traveler has to depend on strangers."
The girl was too embarrassed to answer, except to blurt "Ex-
cuse me" as she tried to run away. But Yonosuke caught her sleeve:
"Here, slip this letterto Miss O-Saka. . .9"
She does; and when the scandalous letter is brought to the

attention of O-Saka's mother, it is at once recognized to be in
the handwriting of the teacher. But Yonosuke insists that the
sentiments are his own-and his aunt privately wishes he were
old enough to be a match for O-Saka, who is, she must admit, of
only average looks. The chapter ends with a bit of advice from
the embarrassed calligraphy teacher: "No matter who asks you,
or what it is, never put anything improper into writing!"
In Saikaku's illustration of the episode (Plate Ia), Yonosuke
looks down from an extremely high veranda, turning away from
the clumsily drawn desk at which he seems to have been practic-
7 Her question echoes part of a mildly amusing Kokinshut 7
verse (No. 1012,Kokka taikan MfA;kffi[T6ky6, 1931] 1. 21b) which makes

a play on the word kuchinashi ("yellowish" or "mouthless").
8 Teihon Saikaku zenshut l (hereafter TSZ), (Tokyo,
1949) 1. 32.
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The Role of the Ukiyo-zoshiIllustrator 73
ing his writinglesson. Below, squeezed intothe lower right-hand

corner,stands the maidservantwhose remarkhe has overheard.
One sees at a glance how he happened to hear the chatteringin
the courtyard,and how,exactly,he seized the opportunity to have
his letter delivered. As usual, Saikaku chooses to illustratean
obviouslydramatic moment-and to intensifyit by the sort of
comic exaggerationthat sets the tone for most of his fiction.If
the distanceis too great forYonosuke to have literallysnatched
the maid's sleeve,his enterprisein tossingher the letterseems all
the more strikingin its nonchalance. Characteristically,as for
the famousspy-glassepisode of the next chapter (I, 3), Moronobu
rationalizesthe scene in a smoothharmoniouscomposition(P1.
Ib). Here, too, he gives Yonosuke a less precariousperch. Re-
versing the compositionleads the eye along its natural path:
downward,fromrightto left. Further,Moronobugroupsthe two
minorfiguresover a single piece of clothin the lower right-hand
corner,simplifyingthe pictureand, by theiropposingattitudes,
completingthe circle suggestedby the posturesof Yonosuke, on
his low veranda, and the other maid. By interposingthe two
girls who are removingtenterhooks,Saikaku increases the diffi-
cultyof Yonosuke's feat. Laws of probabilityare not in question,
any more than those of proportiongovern the strange gestures
and flat,fish-tailedsilhouettesof his human figures.Their out-
lines are delineated in a humorous calligraphic mode, chiefly
on a singleplane, ratherthanwith the sense of three-dimensional
formexpressedby the vigorousline of Moronobu. Yet Saikaku's
figureshave a zest and animationthat Moronobu's,for all their
solidity, lack. Although Saikaku betrays his amateurishness,
by queer proportions,awkward composition,and a tendencyto
fillthe page with architecturaldrawing,abstractfoliagemotives,
and rathermechanicaldetail (here, forinstance,the two formal
bands ofhaze balancingthe stripsofclothbelow), he also displays
everywherehis unique verve and literaryimagination. Moro-
nobu's illustrationsare more beautiful,but less interesting.
A furtherexample,among many,may be cited. At eighteen
(II, 5) Yonosuke sets offfor Edo to begin an apprenticeshipin
trade. His progressis described with poetic allusions-and re-
ferencesto the girls he leaves behind-as he makes his way at
last to Ejiria, in the province of Surugab,where he pauses to
a -Zf.iL b PjkJ
reflectthat "Alive today in this floatingworld,tomorrowI may

end as sea-wrack on the rough shore Oya-shirazua."But at an
inn that nighthe hears a pair of charmingvoices singinga duet.
Told thattheybelong to the beautifulsistersWakasab and Waka-
matsuc,he stays on at the inn, enjoys the favor of both sisters,
and finally,givingup his trip to Edo, decides to take themalong
with him back to Ky6to. This leads to one of the more painful
incidentsof his Wanderjahre. It is one of those sudden changes
of fortune-theuncertaintyof life is a major themein Saikaku-
which may plunge anyone into sickness,poverty,jail, or even
such work as runninga noodle shop full tilt into bankruptcy.In
the course of a journey divertedby tales of the various allure-
mentspracticedon earlier guestsby the two girls,who are grate-
ful to him for having saved them froma life of evil, Yonosuke
findsthat he is almost out of money. Even with the girls' help,
there seems to be no way of strugglingon to Ky6to.
But in the village of Imokawad they ran across one of Waka-
matsu's former admirers. Thanks to him, they were able to move
into an old, dilapidated, thatch-roofed house, where they took up
the trade of making flat noodles, a local specialty.
To stop passers-by, Yonosuke would sing a snatch of "Drawing
up his horse for shelter..." "Could it be snow?" or such.9 Meanwhile
he would stoke the fire with one hand, never letting go his samisen.
Thus the days drifted by-and he became even poorer. In time,
both girls settled down at the foot of Mount Hanazonoe, cut offtheir
hair, and, having been abandoned by their lover, abandoned the
world and were truly saved from evil!"0
So the chapter ends, with the usual ironic twist. Saikaku's

illustration(P1. IIa) shows the full extentof Yonosuke's plight:
hard at work in a shop for which he is indebtedto Wakamatsu.
Strumming vigorously on the samisen to accompany his songs, he
hunches over a flamingnoodle-stove,the pile of faggots con-
venientlynear his righthand. Meanwhile,the two women whom
he findshimselfsupportingwait at the side, as a man on horse-
9 "Passers-by" is linked to a phrase from a poem in the Shinkokin-

shui Vr-4Ff ("Nowhere to draw up his horse for shelter: a snowy
evening near Sano JE" [No. 671, Kokka taikan 1. 184a]), and that, in
turn, to a samisen song about a snow-like burst of cherry blossoms on
Mount Yoshino y!iff-
L4-
10 TSZ 1. 69.
a 3W?I b i-, c - d JIl e YtL[Ij
back proceedsstolidlyby. Even the gnomishlittlefigureleading

the horse, a typical Saikaku bit of grotesquerie,keeps his nose
highand his gaze fixeddead ahead. Moronobu'ssamurai,passing
in the opposite direction,makes a less strikingemblem of bad
business-just as Yonosuke,in this version,seems less intenton
his work (P1. IIb). Substitutinga tray of bowls for the fagaots
is anotherevidence of Moronobu'sslighterconcernforthe anec-
dotal implicationsof the text. Another,perhaps,is that he only
hintsat theshop-signspelled out by Saikaku (Imokawa noodles!),
thoughhe does add the suggestive"Wakamatsu-ya"shop-name
on the curtain. But again, of course,Moronobu'scompositionand
details of settingare more carefullyorganized,his figureshand-
somelygroupedas well as suavely and solidlydrawn. As before,
the figuresare enlargedto bringthe scene into nearer focus and
enhance its pictorial effect.Like the solid black strip of cloth
in the earlierillustration,the black haorigives one ofthosestrong
accentswithwhichMoronobulikes to invigoratehis designs. Yet,
forall the vigorof his draftsmanship, he does not hesitateto give
his designspoise and balance at the expense of Saikaku's unstable
comic exaggeration. The disproportionbetween the size of the
passing samurai and that of the principalfiguresmerelyfollows
the usual requirementsof dramatic emphasis in Japanese art
-not Saikaku's extremeofshrinkinga horseto such small dimen-
sions!" A horse was needed for the scene, however,in order to
pointup the textual allusion to the poem about "drawingup his
horseforshelter." Indeed, the contrastbetweenthe poet's lonely
nobleman and the illustrator'sprosaic merchantis precisely of
the sortwhichoften,withinthe text,is made by Saikaku's parodic
turnson phrases and verses fromclassic literature.Instances of
graphicparodyof a literarythemeare, of course,foundthrough-
out ukiyo-e. The love of an allusive linkingtogetherof disparate
worlds-often to humorouseffect-is not bounded by the limita-
tions of a single artisticmedium.
To be sure, Saikaku's brilliant literary gifts could hardly
fail to influencehis pictorial expression. Yet if, viewed froma
literary standpoint,his illustrationsare more interestingthan
those of a man whose talents are primarilygraphic,still it need
not be assumedthatthe professionalillustrationsof later Saikaku
11 Cf. Noma Koshin ! Saikaku shinko WWZ (T6ky6, 1948),

p. 324.
76 HowardS. Hibbett
books are deficientin anecdotal or dramatic quality. On the
whole,Tokugawa book illustrationbecame more and more "liter-
ary," as artiststried to out-rivalauthors by telling a complete
visual storyof their own. One does, however,findmany ukiyo-
z6shi illustrationswhich seem to be chieflyattractivegenre pic-
tures,ofgirlsin theirvariedkimono,actors,youngmen offashion,
artisans and tradesmen,and the like, entirely in the manner
of the popular "picture-books"(ehona) designedin the hundreds
by Moronobuand Sukenobub. Many of Saikaku's own illustra-
tions for Ichidai otoko suggest a somewhat unorthodoxukiyo-e
scroll of customs,occupations,local beauties; yet all (except the
last) are borderedby a conventionalhaze that gives the sense of
movementof a narrative scroll, in keeping with the anecdotal
quality of the individual scenes.'2 The professionalillustrators
more oftenyield to the temptationto choose a scene for purely
pictorial reasons, since the standard repertoireof the ukiyo-e
designerfurnisheda convenientstock of images, some of which
were likely to have counterpartsin any ukiyo-z6shitext. Thus,
for instance,the second chapter of Ichidai onna (I, 2) is illus-
trated,not by the briefcomic episode that is its climax, but by
a gay scene of girlsdancingat a cherry-viewing partyin Hligashi-
yamac-a typical genre scene to which, it must be admitted,
Saikaku has devoted a considerable part of his chapter. But
Yoshida Hambeid,the illustratorof this and many otherSaikaku
books, seldom seems inclined to exploit his own fame as an
ukiyo-eartist,althoughhis popularityin Ky6to and Osaka rivaled
that of Moronobu in Edo.'3 In general, his designs illuminate
an importantaspect of the text: enrichingit by the addition of
descriptivedetail,or reinforcing a pointof narrativeor anecdotal
interest.
This is certainlytrue of most of his handsome illustrations
forIchidai onna: fromthe first(I, 1), in which the old woman is
12 On similarities between Saikaku's illustrations and those of the

narrative scrolls see Kishi Tokuz6 SX84, "Sashie kara mita Saikaku
bungaku no ichiseikaku" a E W -R*o, Kinsei bungei rff
t 2 (1955), pp. 1-7.
13 Hambei's dates are unknown, but he seems to have been active
from the middle 1660's to the early 1690's. An extremely prolific artist,
he illustrated about half of Saikaku's some twenty ukiyo-zoshi, as well as
many more ukiyo.z6shi and works in other genres.
a b,;/*b - c V[J djf ,
seen beginningher confessionto two young gentleman-callers

(and an eavesdropper),to the last (VI, 4), in which she stands
beforethe images of the Five Hundred Disciples of Buddha-all
strangely resembling former lovers. Since these are usually
double-pageillustrations,scanned fromrightto leftas one would
look at the unrolled portion of a horizontal scroll, they offer
special opportunitiesforshowingnarrativeprogressionor dramat-
ic contrast. But Hambei's notionof decorativevalues restrains
him fromgoingto the extentofsome otherillustrators, Sukenobu
among them, who customarilydivide the double page asym-
metricallyinto two or three scenes. Such examples of this as
we find in his work often present a balanced contrast. From
Ichidai onna we may cite the contrastbetween a crude tea-house
guest and a more polished one (II, 2); between the heroine's
advances to an old servant,which are frustrated, and thoseto his
master (III, 1); and between the unpromisingarrival of a rustic
guest at a fashionableKy6to tea-house and, when he opens his
money-bag,his warm reception (II, 1).
The latter illustration(P1. III) describes an episode which
occurs-with the usual sharp break in continuity-at the very
beginningof the chapter.
An extraordinary spectacle! Down the new roadway from the
Shujakua Gate to the gate of the Shimabarab came a man riding
an otsuc post-horse with two sixteen-gallon sake-barrels lashed to
its saddle. He wore a wadded cotton kimono, vertically striped,
carried a short sword without a hilt-guard, and had on a wide
bamboo-sheath hat. Holding the reins in his right hand, the whip
in his left,he let the horse amble along at its own pace. Thus he made
his way to the Maruyad tea-house of Shichizaemone. His attendant
went in before him and delivered a letter of introduction... and the
person who had sent this letter was known as an influential man
fromEchigof,the special friend of the great courtesan Yoshinog. Piew
rakes spent their money so freely, these days. Impossible to forget
that he had paid, single-handed, the cost of building another storey!
And so, arriving with an introduction of this sort, the visitor was
affably told "Please come in." Yet when you looked at him closely,
atter his horse had been led away, you could hardly take him for
a pleasure-seeker.
The servants,being accustomedto the urbanityof the Capital,
had some misgivings about him. "Do you wish to meet our courte-
sans?" they incquired.
a * b ,JW c to d -& ejr f g
Whereuponthe rusticdandy made a sour face and said, "Don't

worryabout the money!" And he threwdown a leatherbag, spilling
out morethanhalf a peck of oblongcoins embossedin a paulownia-
stalk design. These one-bua coins, which now seldom came into
anyone'shands,he distributedin handfuls.'4
He furtherinsists on drinkinghis own local sake, of which

he has broughta supply thathe does not wish to share with any-
one else. But the familiar satire of the gay blade from the
provincesis merelya prelude to relatingsome of the heroine's
misfortunesafter she has slipped fromthe highestrank of the
gay quarter. Even this fellow refuses her, since she has lost
caste; and the rest of the chapter tells of her ill treatmentat
the tea-house,of her new solicitudeforcasual guests,and (after
an intervalof moralizingon the dangers of visitingthe pleasure
quarter) of the loss of her three regular patrons. "One was an
Osaka man who went bankrupt trying to corner betel-nut;
another began to put his money into the theater, and lost it;
the third failed in a mining venture. Within three weeks all
three were ruined. Nothing more was heard of them, and I
suddenly found myself quite alone." She falls ill, then, and be-
comes rather less attractive. The chapter ends: "Men turned their
backs on me more than ever. Resentfully,I turnedmv own back
on my mirror."
Here, naturally,Hambei has chosen to illustrate the most
pictoriallyeffectiveepisode of a chapterin which Saikaku gives,
instead of a connected narrative, a generalized, fragmentary
account of manners and customs in the pleasure quarter. His
illustration sums up the episode. On the right, the movement
following the line of the diagonal projection, a plump, unfashion-
ably dressed traveler is just arriving at the door of the Maruya
("Circle House") on an Otsu post-horse which is also burdened
with his barrels of sake. An attendant, appropriately boorish-
looking, presents the invaluable letter of introduction to a servant
who is drawn as a stock Hambei figurebut with sufficientex-
pressiveness to show his suspicion of this unlikely pair. On the
left, after a slight break in the design (not usually thought
necessary to indicate a later, differentscene), we see the same
guest after he has poured out his old-fashioned, hoarded coins.
14 TSZ 2. 255-256.
a /P
Illustrator
The Role of the Ukiyo-z6shi 79
He is good-naturedlyreceivingthe adulation of the servantand

his mistress. The picture gives an anecdote complete in itself,
rounded offmore trimlythan in Saikaku's rapid text. Each of
the two groupshas its dramaticunity,one focusedon the servant
and the otheron the complacentguest; and the arrangementof
the groupoutside the tea-houseleads naturally,by a descending
arc,to the compactgroupwithin. Thoughillustratinga humorous
contrast,the designhas an air of repose,such as one seldomfinds
in Saikaku's own illustrations.The few figuresare gracefully
drawn, in ample size, against backgrounds that are complete
without being cluttered. Hambei's style is distinguishedby a
certain lucid elegance. Althoughhis line is stifferthan Moro-
nobu's, the restraintof his draftsmanshipdoes not indicate a
furtherdeviation from the literarytoward the decorative. Of
course this distinctionis only a convenientway of pointingout
differences in illustrativetechnique. Such differences should not
be allowed to obscurethe fact that the decorativeukiyo-eperiod
style itself,taken as a whole, reflects-and is reflectedby-the
genre style of the ukiyo-z6shi.
Many characteristicsof the ukiyo-z6shimight be deduced
fromthe Ichidai onna illustrationsalone. That the heroinedoes
noteven appear in thisone, and may be onlydoubtfullyidentified
in several others (e.g., I, 2), is itselfan indicationof the novel's
generalized, genre-paintingtendency. The illustrationsreveal
the anecdotal structureand spiritof comic realism of the ukiyo-
z6shi, so remote fromthe robust picaresque traditionof early
realisticfictionin the West. The slight,subtle expressivenessof
ukiyo-edrawing,too, suggestssomethingof the relative literary
disregardforcharacterization. More important, the comparatively
easily recognizedaestheticvalues of the ukiyo-estyle may help
to correctsome deep-seatedWesternprejudices in regard to the
importance of illusionism-or what is commonly and loosely
designated as "life"-in the realistic novel. Realism does not
culminatein the sortoftrompe-l'ceil verisimilitudethatthe clever
painter or, by tricksof his own, the novelist may achieve. The
conventionallack of characterizationand architectonicplot con-
structionin Saikaku is no more a sign of weakness than is the
correspondinglack of literal accuracy, correct lighting, and
scientificperspectivein Moronobu. Both Saikaku and Moronobu
express their strongsense of reality throughhighly developed
traditionaltechniques-techniques that are not at all photogra-
phic. Saikaku's realism does not seek to impose the illusion of
80 HowardS. Hibbett
the real: rather it shapes the materials furnishedby his acute
perception into literary forms with a vitality of their own.
Admittedly,the usual conceptionof realism must be somewhat
enlargedin discussingthe ukiyo-zoshi.But if "realism" is a con-
cept difficult to use in the analysis of Japanese fiction,the term
"novel" itselfis singularlyapt to suggest a whole set of wrong
associations to the Western reader. Here ukiyo-e illustrations
offera key to the understandingand appreciationof comparable
literaryconventions.The flat,ornamentalmanner of the basic
ukiyo-e style, its decorative distortions,its conventions of a
shadowless,depthless,weightlessworldofpatternedline and mass
carefully selected and arranged from the actual forms of the
"floatingworld"-these among many characteristicsof Genroku
ukiyo-emay be used, withoutmore than the normal analogous
transferenceof critical terms fromone art to another,to point
out some of the characteristicsof the ukiyo-zoshi.
To be sure,the ukiyo-zoshiillustrator,given only one or two
pages in which,to convey the essence of a whole chapter,can
scarcely do more than offera fuller visualization-realized in
a pleasing design-of the decisive scene of its central incident.
But this effectmay be at once sharper and more delicate than
that of the incidentitself,which may be varied by digressions,
diffractedinto a number of brief scenes, or shaped to suit the
taste forepigrammaticwit and ironicmoralizing.Such an effect
is achieved by Hambei in one of his mostsuccessfulIchidai onna
illustrations:thatforthe letter-writing chapter (II, 4). Saikaku
beginsby quotingthe sort of thing"lady letter-writers" turnout
("The irises you sent me are exquisite: I gaze at them endlessly
with the greatestpleasure...") -and his heroine,back in Ky6to
after one of her arduous adventures,decides that she, too. can
make a livingby teachingyoungwomen to writefloweryletters.
Years ago, I had been in the service of a court lady, and because
of that connection I was able to establish a writing-school for girls.
Delighted to live in my own house at last, I stuck the notice
"Instruction in Calligraphy for Ladies" on my gate-post, put my one
small room in order, and hired a maidservant fresh from the country.
Taking charge of other people's daughters was no easy matter, it
seemed to me. Day by day, without fail, I corrected papers and
taught the essentials of feminine good manners. I even behaved
myself-no more loose thoughts for me!
Then an ardent young man asked me to write love-letters for
him. Since my experience at love was thoroughly professional, I
had no trouble turning out a seductive letter. Whether my corres-
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pondent appeared to be an innocent young girl or a shrewd, seasoned

woman of the floatingworld, I knew just the trick for her-one she
was sure to find irresistible...
There follows a digression on the importance of sincerity in

letter-writing (an ironic comment on her own activities) and
an amusing illustrative incident from her memories of the gay
quarter. She continues:
So I poured all my passion into writing on behalf of young men.

"Whenyou have me do your love-letters,"I assured them,"you're
likely to get just what you want-no matter how hard-hearted she
is." Before I knew it, my letters even began to convince myself!
I fell in love with a customer.
But her forthrightadvances to him are received somewhat

coldly. In revenge, she decides to use all the dark powers of
the femme fatale against him.
As mighthave been expected,he graduallywitheredaway.

It was pitiful! The next spring,when everyonehad changedto
lightkimono,he went on wearinglayers of thicklypadded clothes.
One doctorafteranothergave him up. His beard was shaggy,his
nails long. He listenedwith his hand cupped behind his ear-and
if there was any talk about good-looking women, he turned away
reproachfully."5
These comic overtones are of course considerably muted in

Hambei's illustration (P1. IV). Yet it embodies a suggestion of
the same ironic turn of events from the heroine's new-found
proper occupation back to her old wanton ways. Again (as in
P1. III) the composition follows a converging pair of diagonal
architectural lines, the lower right group of three figures leading
even more emphatically to the group of three in the focus of
interest on the left. Here, though, the scene is a logical unity and
has a pattern of suspense rather than balanced contrast. And
Hambei, as if to make up for the omissions in Saikaku's laconic
text, supplies all the necessary details of setting. Against this
subdued background, the incongruity of the heroine's behavior
becomes apparent. There is the quiet fagade of her little house,
its half-timbers and latticed window suggestive of a secluded
Ky6to side-street; inside, there are the possessions-tables, boxes
15 TSZ 2. 271-275.
82 HowardS. Hibbett
of writingmaterials,a koto leaning against a K6rinesque screen
-of a refinedlady who teaches etiquetteand calligraphy. But
one notesalso the rathershowywater-wheeldesignon the sleeve
of a kimonohangingfroma clothes-rackin the background. As
selectiveas it is, the ukiyo-etechniquecomplementsthe sophisti-
cated brevityof ukiyo-zoshidescriptivewriting.
And the anecdote itselfis amplifiedby Hambei in his own
way. The threeyoung girls leaving on the right,under the sign
"Instructionin Calligraphy for Ladies," have had their lesson
abruptly ended. Though not mentioned in the text, they too
heightenthe effectofincongruity.Curiosityhas overcomea rigid
training in the proprieties,at least for the girl carrying a
writing-caseand copy-book.We see her lingeringto peer through
the door-curtains, as a companionturnsto call her. Her line of
vision points to the maid (bringingtea for the sudden visitor),
to the heroine (just finishingthe firstline of a letter), and to
the unfortunateyoung man himself-so out of place in these
surroundings.It is perhaps the decisive moment,describedsuc-
cinctlyby Saikaku, in which the heroine decides to speak for
herself. "One day, as I sat beside him, brush in hand, I lapsed
intoa long,pensivesilence. Then I spoke out shamelessly."What
she says beginsthebriefclimacticepisodeofthe story-an episode
precededby an effectivepose. In the ukiyo-z6shiand theirillus-
trations,as well as in the kabuki theater and the actor prints,
a dramatic situation is often summed up or anticipated in a
tableau. Such poses crystallize the importantscenes at their
critical moments. A set of ukiyo-z6shiillustrationsmay thus
trulyreflectthe highlightsof the work.

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The Role of the Ukiyo-Zoshi Illustrator

Author(s): Howard S. Hibbett

By Howard S. Hibbett, Kyoto

It is perhaps one of the paradoxes of Japanese art that

1 Nihon bijutsu no tokushitsu E (T6ky6, 1943), pp.

a a& bg j c tJli d gj e LiGif:-f i A;W*

literature. The ukiyo-e style reflectedthe discriminatingtaste

2 David Bland, The Illustration of Books (London, 1953), p. 12.

4 Saikaku's euvre as an illustrator includes a number of haikai

which Saikaku himselfdid for the original edition. Although

5 On this edition see Richard Lane, "Postwar Japanese Studies of

silks thathad been stretched

She does; and when the scandalous letter is brought to the

7 Her question echoes part of a mildly amusing Kokinshut 7

verse (No. 1012,Kokka taikan MfA;kffi[T6ky6, 1931] 1. 21b) which makes

a Sm/A;S ?W > -9X t ^U x

X =:- ~~- N-A' l i lt=

ing his writinglesson. Below, squeezed intothe lower right-hand

reflectthat "Alive today in this floatingworld,tomorrowI may

So the chapter ends, with the usual ironic twist. Saikaku's

9 "Passers-by" is linked to a phrase from a poem in the Shinkokin-

back proceedsstolidlyby. Even the gnomishlittlefigureleading

11 Cf. Noma Koshin ! Saikaku shinko WWZ (T6ky6, 1948),

12 On similarities between Saikaku's illustrations and those of the

seen beginningher confessionto two young gentleman-callers

a * b ,JW c to d -& ejr f g

Whereuponthe rusticdandy made a sour face and said, "Don't

He furtherinsists on drinkinghis own local sake, of which

He is good-naturedlyreceivingthe adulation of the servantand

i.~~~~? -*.^ <.4<A

0,4 Sz\ ''~'t ."'

pondent appeared to be an innocent young girl or a shrewd, seasoned

There follows a digression on the importance of sincerity in

So I poured all my passion into writing on behalf of young men.

But her forthrightadvances to him are received somewhat

As mighthave been expected,he graduallywitheredaway.

These comic overtones are of course considerably muted in

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