Title: doubutsu-dare-M-withcover.pdf Author: AKAEHO Created Date: 8/16/2018 2:44:34 PM. OPEN%CALL%FOR%INTERNATIONAL%BOOK%ARTISTS% MOKUHANGA)EHON)) Woodcut)PrintedBookArt)Exhibition,)Nov23 –)Dec5,2021 ) Kyoto%ParadiseGallery%,91 18Enshojicho,%Okazaki. Title: ahirusan-nocover.pdf Author: AKAEHO Created Date: 8/9/2018 10:08:20 PM. HHIh IA /^^ VS 5 tAs r ^^^ ^7)Y7V /).-^S6 ^VAi/ — X &! 4 ^a ^^hyyE^l XA^^AJ — Dv/y i^)^7^ V sd, /l ^^JA ufL — ^ XK ^ ^ r S I rv s v-r 0# m —.kk p 4?Hwvy-w V^icl/TT any 9 1. Created Date: 5/12/2020 3:43:10 PM.
E-hon or Ehon (絵本) is the Japanese term for picture books. It may be applied in the general sense, or may refer specifically to a type of woodblock printed illustrated volume published in the Edo period.
The first ehon were religious items with images by Buddhist painters.[1] Those from the Muromachi period are typically known as nara-ehon.[2] In the early modern period (1600–1868) illustrated books exploded in popularity. They covered a diverse range of subjects with experimentation in production techniques.[1]
Ehon production was a significant part of the Japanese publishing industry (particularly) during the 19th century; most Japanese woodblock printartists of the period produced ehon designs (often in large quantities), as commercial work.[3]
Toward the end of the 19th century, ehon chapter-books were eclipsed in popularity by the new 'western' concept of literary magazines. These were larger books which contained more, and a wider range of material per-issue, but usually fewer pictures (measured on a text-to-images ratio). They often used more modern printing methods; the increase in production costs was offset by increased efficiency, larger-scale printing and distribution, and the introduction of advertising. Typically, a magazine would include one large folded, polychrome illustration referencing some 'feature' story in the volume, as a frontispiece. Such pictures, woodblock-printed in colour, are known as kuchi-e. The new format also absorbed most of the remaining talent and market for ukiyo-e style prints.
Artist manuals or model books (edehon)[4] were treasured by art schools and became popular with the public. Ōoka Shunboku's Ehon tekagami ('Hand mirror') of 1720 demonstrated characteristic styles of different artists. Illustrations which were either handpainted or stenciled appear in his Minchō shiken of 1746, based on the successful Chinese Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden of 1679 which was released as a Japanese version, Kaishien gaden, in 1748.[5]
In 1765 polychrome woodblock printing was developed in Edo. The prints were called nishiki-e, ie. brocade pictures, because of their similarity to color silk brocades (nishiki). The first large-scale commercial book with full-color printing was Ehon butai ōgi in 1770, with artwork by ukiyo-e artists Katsukawa Shunshō and Ippitsusai Bunchō. The book featured realistic depictions of kabuki actors (nigao-e) and was popular with theatergoers.[5] The same year saw the publication of Tachibana Minkō's Shokunin burui which was colored with a stenciling technique known as kappazuri.[5] It depicted craftsmen at work at was immediately successful. Also published in 1770 was Ehon seirō bijin awase by Suzuki Harunobu which combined hokku poetry with images of courtesans from the Yoshiwara brothel district.[5]
In 1790 the Tokugawa shogunate introduced severe censorship laws for publishers. They targeted 'luxurious' works and for a while publishers ceased production of color woodblock-printed books.[5]
The famous ukiyo-e artist Hokusai worked on dozens of ehon early in his career. In 1814 the first volume of his Hokusai manga was published which featured hundreds of drawings colored with gray and rose pink tones. Its popularity with multiple subsequent volumes appears to have influenced other publishers to use a simplified palette of subdued color.[5] One of the finest ehon works is his 100 Views of Mount Fuji released in 1834–35 in two volumes by Nishimuraya Yohachi with extremely fine carving by the workshop of Egawa Tomekichi and exquisite grey gradations (bokashi). It is seen as the pinnacle of monochrome printing.[6][7]
Most ehon of the Edo period were made with side-stitched binding. They used highly durable washi paper. A page is made from a single sheet printed on one side which is folded printed side out. These folded sheets are bound at their open ends with cords of twisted paper which go through two holes made in the stack of sheets. The bookcover is glued to blank outer pages and attached to the stack of pages with a hemp cord stitched through four holes which penetrate the covers and book block. This method of binding is called fukurotoji.[8]
Media related to E-hon at Wikimedia Commons
The Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (絵本百物語, 'Picture Book of a Hundred Stories'), also called the Tōsanjin Yawa (桃山人夜話, 'Night Stories of Tōsanjin') is a book of yōkai illustrated by Japanese artist Takehara Shunsensai, published about 1841. The book was intended as a followup to Toriyama Sekien's Gazu Hyakki Yagyō series. Like those books, it is a supernatural bestiary of ghosts, monsters, and spirits which has had a profound influence on subsequent yōkai imagery in Japan.
The author's pen name is Tōsanjin (桃山人); however, in the preface it is written as Tōka Sanjin (桃花山人). According to the Kokusho Sōmokuroku (Iwanami Shoten) this is considered to be a gesaku author from the latter half of the Edo period, Tōkaen Michimaro (桃花園三千麿).
It can be said that this is a kind of hundred-tale kaidan (ghost story) book popular in the Edo period, as '100 Tales' is part of the title, but rather than being tales with story titles, yōkai names are printed with illustrations of yōkai, so it could be said that this work is a fusion of kaidan book and picture book.
This book is also known by the title Tōsanjin Yawa because the title on the first page of each volume is 'Tōsanjin Yawa, Volume [#].' Scholar of Japanese manners and customs Ema Tsutomu (Nihon Yōkai Henka-shi, 1923) and folklorist Fujisawa Morihiko (Hentai Densetsu-shi, 1926), as well as magazines at that time, introduced this book by the name Tōsanjin Yawa, and so this title became famous. On the other hand, Mizuki Shigeru, in his 1979 Yōkai 100 Monogatari describes it in his references as 'Ehon Hyaku Monogatari (Author: Tōsanjin, Year of publication: Unknown).'
It has also been recognized that a book with completely the same contents, titled Ehon Kaidan Zoroe, was published in 2005 by Yumoto Kōichi. The preface's title is changed, and the title of each volume is Ehon Kaidan Zoroe Volume [#] rather than Tōsanjin Yawa Volume [#]. Upon examination, it appears to be an earlier publication than Ehon Hyaku Monogatari, with the relationship that the inscriptions of 'Tōsanjin' and 'Tōka Sanjin' are mixed, and it also is generally suggested that the first edition of Ehon Hyaku Monogatari may have been published before 1841.
The illustrations below are numbered by volume and appearance order. For example, the third illustration in the first volume is 1–3, and so on.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ehon Hyaku Monogatari. |