Ehon nezame gusa 絵本寝覚種

FSC-GR-780.458.1-3

Commentary by Ishigami Aki

Posted December 3, 2017

Original unedited text in Japanese follows

Ehon nezame gusa (Picture-book of sources of fitful waking) renders forty kanshi poems written in classical Chinese (seventeen also include accompanying waka versions) from the Wakan rōeishū 和漢朗詠集 (Collection of Japanese and Chinese poems to sing, ca. 1013) into a picture-book. The images portray contemporary manners and customs and lifestyle that correspond with the meaning of the poems. The introduction states that “pictures are silent poetry” (e wa musei no shi 絵は無声の詩), and accordingly Sukenobu’s images connect scenes of daily life with the emotional landscapes sung in classical verse.

Such an updating of classical literature was one of Sukenobu’s strengths, and in addition to the current work, he produced other picture-books such as illustrated versions of Tsurezuregusa 徒然草 (Essays in idleness) and Makura no sōshi 枕草子 (The pillow book, c. 1000), as well as books dealing with classical waka as their subject. Sukenobu’s illustration of these in picture-books made it easy for readers to understand classical works of literature, and thus they played a large role in the popularization of literary classics.

These illustrated classics also greatly influenced ukiyo-e artists in Edo. Most notably, Sukenobu’s ehon inspired the nishiki-e prints, ehon, and shunga (erotic pictures) by Suzuki Harunobu (鈴木春信). The Ehon nezame gusa, for example, led to Suzuki Harunobu’s 1771 Imayō tsumakagami 今様妻鑑 (Mirror of wives of today, 1771), an erotic book that was a “parody” (mitate 見立) of the kanshi poems. [1] Imayō tsumakagami not only contains all of the same poems as in Ehon nezame gusa, but even the ordering of the poems essentially follows Sukenobu’s book. Furthermore, there are many illustrations that appropriate Sukenobu’s compositions, either in part or in full. While following Sukenobu’s interpretations of the poems in Chinese, the book translates these poems into the world of male-female sexual liaisons, thus entertaining the reader with multilayered interpretations.

Ehon nezame gusa is one of the Sukenobu picture-books included in the “library” Ehon Yamato bunko 絵本倭文庫 (Yamato archive of picture-books; see Ehon miyako zōshi [sōshi] FSC-GR-780.447 for a description). However, there is no difference in content between the anthologized version and the Pulverer copy. The Pulverer copy originally consisted of three volumes, but they have since been combined within one cover. The end of each volume has an ehon shomoku 絵本書目 (catalogue of picture-books) that lists twenty titles arranged in two rows.

書名絵本寝覚種

執筆者石上阿希

本書は『和漢朗詠集』に載る漢詩40首うち17首は和歌を併記するを絵本化したもので、詩歌の意味に重ねるように当世風俗を描いている。序に「絵は無声の詩」とある通り、祐信の絵は日々の暮らしを古歌で詠われた情景とつなげている。

古典の当世化は祐信の得意とするところであり、本書の他にも祐信絵本には『徒然草』、『枕草子』や古典和歌を題材にしたものがある。図解することで、読者の古典理解を平易なものにしており、祐信絵本が古典の大衆化に果たした役割は大きい。

また、これらの古典絵本は江戸の浮世絵師にも大きな影響を与えた。特に鈴木春信の錦絵、絵本、春画には祐信絵本を発想の源としているものが多くみられる。『絵本寝覚種』の場合、春信の『今様妻鑑Imayō tsumakagami』明和8年1771頃という追随作を生んだ。[1]『今様妻鑑』は漢詩見立の艶本であるが、掲載する詩は全て『絵本寝覚種』に載るものと同じであり、配列もほぼ踏襲している。また、構図をそのまま、あるいは一部利用した図も多々みられる。祐信の漢詩解釈を踏襲しながら、男女の物語に見立てた世界はさらに重層的な読み解く楽しみを読者に与えたといえる。

本来は上・中・下巻三冊であるが、プルヴェラー本は各巻表紙ごと一冊に合綴している。また、巻末には「絵本書目」2段20点がある。

『絵本寝覚種』は『絵本倭文庫』に所収される絵本の一つ。所収本とプルヴェラー本との内容の異同はない。

Selected readings:

Ishigami Aki 石上阿希, “Kanshi to enpon: Ehon nezame gusa kara Imayō tsumakagami”「漢詩と艶本『絵本寝覚種』から『今様妻鑑』」, Nihon no shunga, enhon kenkyū 『日本の春画・艶本研究』(Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2015).

Matsudaira Susumu 松平進, “Koten no taishūka to Sukenobu ehon” 「古典の大衆化と祐信絵本」, Bungaku 49/11 『文学49/11』(November 1981), 55–70.

Matsudaira Susumu 松平進, Moronobu Sukenobu ehon shoshi 『師宣西川祐信絵本書誌』(Tokyo: Seishōdō Shoten, 1988), 207–9.

Copies in other collections:

Hakushika Memorial Sake Brewing Museum, Nishinomiya

Honolulu Museum of Art

International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), Kyoto

Kansai University Library

National Institute of Japanese Literature, Tokyo

University of California, Los Angeles

Musées royaux d’art et d’histoire, Brussels (the Kornicki Union Catalogue of Early Japanese Books in Europe コーニツキー・欧州所在日本古書総合目録データベース lists the publication date as Genbun 5 (1740), but since the publication information given there is the same as for Ehon Chitoseyama 絵本千年山, it is possible that this is an error.)

Yamato bunko printings:

Art Institute of Chicago

Honolulu Museum of Art

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Nagoya University Library

National Diet Library

Victoria & Albert Museum

[1] Ishigami 2015.