With the advent of the 17th century in Japan, the production of illustrated scrolls--a genre of picture scroll with accompanying text--played a significant part in the cultural activities of court and warrior elites. It was, for example, during this period that the outstanding exemplar of this genre--works in the so-called Nara ehon style--were produced in ever greater quantities, attaining their peak at some point in the Kanbun and Enpō eras (1661-81). At the same time, the 17th century also witnessed the appearance of a great number of printed books containing illustrations. These spanned a diversity of texts, from poetry collections to fictional works of kana zōshi or ukiyo zōshi, with the vast majority of such editions being printed by woodblock.

To investigate this eclectic mix, this panel dispenses with those disciplinary boundaries that artificially segregate illustrated manuscripts (picture scrolls as well as Nara ehon) from printed books with illustrations belonging to the same period--and indeed the boundaries separating medieval literature from the adjacent literature of early modernity. By approaching these illustrated works under such a comprehensive framework, as all being equally the artistic products of a shared 17th century, this panel explores at a more basic level the production of texts accompanied by illustrations as a phenomenon unto itself.

In addition, the presentations constituting this panel also function--to varying degrees--as examples of the premodern archive resources (particularly in digitized form) of the National Institute of Japanese Literature being put to use.

On the Fragmentary Illustrated Scroll Eboshi-ori monogatari emaki (National Institute of Japanese Literature Archives)

Shiori Kume (National Institute of Japanese Literature)

The subject of the illustrated scroll Eboshi-ori monogatari emaki, a story depicting the coming of age ceremony (genpuku) of Minamoto no Yoshitsune, was in its origin a work in the repertoire of the performance genre known as kōwaka-mai, a popular artform in Japan across the 15th-17th centuries. Examining a fragment of this illustrated scroll surviving in the archives of the National Institute of Japanese Literature, along with other examples of the work belonging to the same textual line, this presentation will consider the properties and trends characteristic of kōwaka-based illustrated scrolls and manuscripts at the very earliest period of such texts’ production.

Illustrations in Print and the Production of Illustrated Scrolls in the Latter 17th Century: The Case of the Illustrated Scroll Koyasu no honji (National Institute of Japanese Literature Archives)

Tomoko Koida (National Institute of Japanese Literature)

The Kanbun and Enpō eras (1661-81), traditionally considered a golden age for Nara illustrated books and scrolls, witnessed an increase in the production of manuscripts containing multiple-colored illustrations, from the lavishly decorated illustrated scrolls commissioned by daimyō households individually to the kind of rectangular-sized Nara illustrated books that were produced en masse. A large amount of such material is still extant, and the classification and analysis of this corpus continues apace today. Using in particular the case of the work Koyasu no honji, an illustrated scroll recently acquired by the National Institute of Japanese Literature, this paper explores the situation of illustrated scroll production in the latter 17th century, and its relationship to the contemporary culture of print.

Illustrated Poetry Collections in the Medium of Print: Their History and Development during the Early Edo Period

Ken'ichi Kansaku (National Institute of Japanese Literature)

Over the course of the Edo period, how many illustrated editions of poetry collections appeared in the medium of woodblock print? Under exactly what conditions, processes, and schedules did the initial carving (kan), print-usage (in), and eventual repair (shū) of the woodblocks used to produce such editions actually take place?

In this paper, building upon the foundation laid by the findings of historical print-medium bibliographical research, I present a synoptic treatment of those issues central to the field today. I focus in particular on the works Hyakunin isshu zōsanshō (1678/ Enpō 6) and Kumoi no sakura (1683/Tenna 3), exploring various problems of each work’s literary, and also cultural, historiography.

17th-century Japanese Literature and Tea Culture as Seen from the Archives of the National Institute of Japanese Literature: The Works of Ihara Saikaku

Yukiko Miyamoto (National Institute of Japanese Literature)

The 17th century is that period during which the art of the tea ceremony became established as a standard feature in the cultural education of Japan’s upper classes. It was also in this period that the popular literary genre of fiction known as ukiyo zōshi came into being through the writings of the author Ihara Saikaku, several of whose works in fact make reference to the tea culture thus so recently established as part of the curriculum. This presentation explores such uses of the tea culture in Saikaku’s oeuvre, taking advantage in particular of the graphic tools and archives available in the New Database of Premodern Japanese Works.