Japanese Collections

Recently our library acquired a couple of wooden printing blocks that were used during the Edo Period (1603-1868). One of these, featuring a kabuki actor named “Matsumoto Koshiro,” forms part of the Japanese Theatre Collection and is held in the Lawrence and Lee Theatre Research Institute. Dated roughly from the 18th century, the object measures 165 x 340 x 20 mm and is double-sided, with the main image carved on the obverse, and a background and outline carved on the reverse.

Matsumoto Koshiro is a stage name that has been held by a distinguished line of kabuki actors since the early 18th century. Based on the carving of “Toyokuni-e” on the upper right side of the obverse, it is believed that one of Utagawa Tokyokuni’s skilled disciples created the original illustration upon which the wooden block carvings are based.

This wooden block also bears a mark of censorship: a seal (kiwame-in) carved onto a “wood plug” (ireki, 入木) that was inserted into the block to indicate it had been approved by censors.

The carving on the reverse provides an outline for Matsumoto’s figure, a rigid shape in the background to frame his body, and a small added detail to the hilt of his sword. Both sides of the block feature kentô (or ‘pass marks,’ 見当) , carved corners that ensured the accurate registration of the woodblock image.

The image above shows a collage of four views of the block. In clockwise order, the top view reveals the main side, or obverse, of the printing block; the top right shows a close-up view of “Toyokuni e” carving on the obverse side; the bottom right shows the full reverse side of the printing block; and the bottom left provides a close-up view of one of two kentо̄ (carved corners) that ensured accurate placing of the block on the print.

The picture to the right shows a close-up view of the lower right-hand corner of the obverse where we can see the removable wooden plug (ireki) with the character for ‘approved’ (kiwame, 極).  As part of woodblock printing industry of that time, inspectors (gyoji) selected among fellow publishers were responsible for reviewing the draft sketches to ensure that they were not offensive to the Tokugawa shogun. If they approved the draft, they marked the image, literally, with the seal of ‘approval’. Then, the engraver carved the design along with the seal onto wooden printing boards.  

This kabuki printing block is one of two that are currently held in the Special Collections at the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library. Stay tuned to hear more about the other wooden printing block, entitled “Sparrow in a Pine Grove” (“Suzume no Matsubara”), which was once used to print illustrated travel books in the late Edo period, circa 1800s-1868.

Have you ever wished you could read the Japanese calligraphy (kuzushiji) in museum woodblock prints or old Edo-period manuscripts? When it comes to archival sources and manuscripts, even expert Japanologists often feel the need to brush up on– if not start completely from ‘zero’–their Japanese paleography reading skills.

With this in mind, we’ve recently stepped up our holdings in Japanese paleography handbooks, including several nifty new acquisitions by Kobayashi Masahiro, an expert and scholar of historical documents (komonjo).

The image here is one of several museum pieces featured in Kobayashi’s book Korenara yomeru! Kuzushiji, komonjo nyūmon (これなら読める!くずし字・古文書入門), which translates roughly as “If I Could Read That: An Introduction to Japanese kuzushiji and komonjo.” As the picture suggests, the book offers various translations as well as useful tips for learning how to decipher such Japanese calligraphic texts often found in famous Edo-period woodblock prints.

For additional titles on learning Japanese hentaigana, check out these recent additions:

Guest post by Mitch Clark

We are pleased to announce the addition of two new exciting collections to the JKBooks eBook platform at University Libraries: the Dai-ichi Koto Gakko Koyukai Zasshi (published by The Museum of Modern Japanese Literature) and the Kobunso Taika Koshomoku (a major corpus of antiquarian book catalogs). Both of these collections will be useful to scholars investigating topics related to early 20th century culture, especially youth culture, education, literature, and philology. With the addition of these titles, the number of online JKBooks collections now reaches a grand total of thirteen available to OSU users. Below is a short description of these collections as well as some highlights and screenshots of their contents.

Dai-ichi Koto Gakko Koyukai Zasshi (第一高等学校 校友会雑誌)

Two Sample covers of the
Daiichi Koto Gakko Koyukai Zasshi

The Dai-ichi Koto Gakko Koyukai Zasshi is a magazine published by First Higher School of Japan, a former preparatory boy’s boarding school in Tokyo and one of Japan’s most elite institutions of the modern era. Published from the Meiji period until during WWII, the database offers all but 2 issues (380 of 382 ever published) of the magazine. (Issues No. 293 and 295 of 1923 (Taisho 12) have not been found and are therefore not included in the collection).

In the publisher’s words, this “magazine vividly records the mentality fostered within this elite high school” from the pre-war period until World War II. In addition to leading artists and literary figures, many of the students of this school eventually became prominent leaders in academia, politics, the economy, and education. The repository thus “stands as a spiritual record of the youthful times of those figures” during much of Japan’s modern era (1890-1940).

Among other topics, the journal overflows with poetry and prose written by such luminaries as Jun’ichiro Tanizaki (谷崎 潤一郎, Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, 1886 – 1965) and Yasunori Kawabata (川端 康成, Kawabata Yasunari, 1899 – 1972) during their high school days. While many of the issues emphasize the arts, its diverse contents will be of interest to wide-ranging scholars from many disciplines including the social sciences. Some of pages that stood out to me, for instance, were those with multiple essays (as well as a team fight song) about the school’s baseball club in the early Taisho period. An analysis of such sources can certainly help in constructing a more vivid image of early baseball culture in Tokyo and Japan!

Screenshot of the school’s Baseball Club Fight Song, Supplement Issue No. 2, February 28, 1909, pp. 110-11.

Kobunso Taika Koshomoku (弘文荘待賈古書目)

Two Sample covers of the 77-volume
catalog Kobunso Taika Koshomoku

The Kobunso Taika Koshomoku is a 77-volume catalog collection that lists approximately 20,000 antiquarian books. Distributed to customers of the vintage bookstore “Kōbunsō” founded by Shigeo Sorimachi (1901-1991), the volumes were originally published between 1933 and 1984 and filled with detailed bibliographical information, illustrations, and publishing histories. They are therefore an especially useful reference for scholars of philology and bibliographical studies.

In my first browsing of the catalogue, I stumbled upon some Western classics. Entries 93 through 95, for example, list first edition copies of such famous English language books as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, and The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

Entries 93-95. Kobunso Taika Koshomoku, No. 48,
Showa 51.01 (January 1976), pp. 106.

JapanKnowledge Books (aka JK Books) is an ever-expanding eBook platform hosted by JapanKnowledge (an online treasure trove in its own right of Japan’s most important dictionaries and encyclopedia). For an overview (or just a refresher) on “JKBooks,” please take the time to visit this past blog. The list below shows a list of the newest collections (marked with *) along with the many others offered through our library.

1. Taiyo
2. Bungei Kurabu: Meiji-hen
3. Dai-ichi Koto Gakko Koyukai Zasshi*
4. Takita Choin kyuzo Kindai sakka genkoshu
5. Fuzoku Gaho
6. Gunsho Ruiju series
7. Bijutsu Shinpo
8. Toyo Keizai Shimpo / Weekly Toyo Keizai Digital Archives
9. Kobunso Taika Koshomoku*
10. Jinbutsu Sosho
11. The ORIENTAL ECONOMIST Digital Archives
12. Kamakura Ibun
13. Bungeishunju Archives

If you have any questions regarding JKBooks, or any other resource offered for Japanese Studies at the OSU Libraries, please contact us!

Guest Post by Takuma Goto

Originally published in 1843, the Dainihon kōtei ōezu (大日本行程大繪圖 transl.: Great Japanese Travel Map) illustrated the Japanese state and its borders at that time. The northern island of Ezochi (present-day Hokkaido), for instance, is not pictured on this map as it was not yet annexed into Japanese territory. This colonial acquisition occurs after the Meiji Restoration (1868).  Our copy at OSU (pictured below) is a facsimile (printed in 1977) of an 1857 re-issue of the original version from 1843.

Dainihon kōtei ōezu ( 大日本行程大繪圖).  27 x 199 cm (unfolded)

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