The First Printing of Hiroshige's Eight Views of Omi and Added Plates The

Research Note: The First Printing of The Impact of Meisho zue on Utagawa Hiroshige’s Eight Views of Omi and Kuniyoshi’s Hyakunin isshu no uchi Added Plates Frank Witkam Asano Shûgô In ukiyo-e prints, there are often changes made to a In the final decades of the Edo period (1603–1868), a print, whether a reworking of the primary print block or large number of ukiyo-e prints based on the medieval removal of a section of the image, a lessening, changing poem anthology Hyakunin isshu (One Hundred Poems, or modifying of color blocks, or changes made at the One Poem Each, early 13th century) compiled by Fujiwara printing stage. There are also examples of changes made Teika (1162–1241) were published. Starting with Hyakun- when blocks are reused, but there are rarely cases of ad- in isshu uba ga etoki (Hyakunin isshu as Told by a Wet ditional color blocks. Three prints in Hiroshige’s Eight Nurse, 1835–1836) by Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), Views of Omi set of eight prints, namely, Returning Sails followed by publications such as Hyakunin isshu no uchi at Yabase, Sunset at Seta, and Evening Snow on Mt. Hira, (From the Hundred Poets, One Poem Each, 1842–1843), all clearly have added color blocks, while Evening Bell at Nishiki-e chūiri hyakunin isshu (One Hundred Poems, Mii possibly has such additions. These facts all indicate One Poem Each in Color with Commentary, 1849) by the repeated trial and error process used during the Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861) and Utagawa Kunisada printing stage. Thus, it is possible that the original plan (1786–1864), and Ogura nazorae hyakunin isshu (The was not as described in the advertisement in the back of Hundred Poets Compared, 1846) by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, the Fifty-three Stations of the Tôkaidô album, which Kunisada and Hiroshige (1797–1858) it seems a true stated “ink pictures with light colors.” However, that was Hyakunin isshu boom took place at the time. clearly the intention of Hiroshige and the publisher at the Previous research has shown how these Hyakunin time of the creation of that advertisement. And since isshu series relate to contemporary Hyakunin isshu com- there were many works that made use of ink tones, in mentary books. Scholar Iwakiri Yuriko has revealed how fact, we can consider that they likely prepared various Hokusai borrowed from the illustrated commentary book versions that would reflect the preferences of the buyers. Hyakunin isshu zue (1807), and how Kuniyoshi’s Hyakunin In the case of Shimabara Deguchi no yanagi, from the isshu no uchi borrows stories and images from Hyakunin Kyoto Meisho no uchi series, there are some works that do isshu hitoyogatari (One Hundred Poets, One Poem Each: not have an image of the moon. These prints can be seen One Night’s Tale, 1833), an illustrated Hyakunin isshu as very early printings of the blocks, and it is likely that edition by the national learning scholar Ozaki Masayoshi the addition of the moon block for the standard version (1755–1827). was made after that early print run was evaluated. In this paper, I argue that meisho zue (gazetteers) also significantly influenced Bakumatsu hyakunin isshu images. I compare Kuniyoshi’s Hyakunin isshu no uchi with illustrations from various meisho zue publications and conclude that around half of the images in this series borrow elements from meisho zue. I also argue that Hyakunin isshu hitoyogatari’s author and print designer consulted meisho zue publications in a similar way as Kuniyoshi. 112.

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