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 Sketch-tour books and prints of the early twentieth century [continued]
Scott Johnson
In the preface Hiromitsu states that walking the remaining portions of the
old Tôkaidô is itself away of seeing the world freshly, and he set off in the
spirit of the bumbling, adventurous heroes of Hizakurige (Shank's Mare).
He also confesses that he was constantly mindful of the works of Hiroshige and
Hokusai. It is interesting that in spite of his training in oils, Hiromitsu was
consciously challenging the reputation of his ukiyo-e predecessors who had made
landscape prints a vital part of the 19th century woodcut tradition. In spite of
its apparent commercial failure, one incontestable importance of Gojûsantsugi
Suketchi is that the blocks were cut by Igami Bonkotsu and the printing was
done by Nishimura Kumakichi. A headnote by Hiromitsu states that he first made
pencil sketches on the spot and then added color washes, sometimes layering wash
upon wash to create new color effects. Bonkotsu and Kumakichi were remarkably
able to convey the feel of watercolors through the woodcut medium. There are no
outlines on any of the illustrations. The energy of the original sketches is
conveyed by broken lines and the effect of hastily brushed color washes.The
overlays of color are striking. Although there is no attempt to convey
brushstrokes, in other respects the block carving and printing techniques are
closer to the classic Shijô and Nanga albums than to ukiyo-e or the line
illustrations of earlier meishô-ki travel books. Since Igami Bonkotsu then made
his living carving blocks for facsimile ukiyo-e prints, it is revealing that he
was not only attracted to the challenge of Hiromitsu's sketches, but that he
succeeded so well in meeting the challenge. Other publishers were quick to note
this success.
In 1906 publisher Yamada Kyûrô began a more ambitious undertaking for his
Nakanishiya bookstore. This is the Nihon Meishô Shasei Kikô (Sketches and
Travel Notes on Japanese Sights), a series of five books, bound in Western
style, published between 1906 and 1912. Each book is illustrated primarily with
hand-printed color woodcuts, but also with lithographs, photolithographs and
photographic process illustrations. Again, Hiromitsu is one of the contributors,
but this time he is joined by Okano Sakae(1880-1940), Yamamoto Morinosuke
(l877-l928), Kobayashi Shôkichi (1887-1946) and Atomi Tai(1884-1953), all of
whom had studied with Kuroda and exhibited with his White Horse Society. The
woodcuts for the entire series were cut by Igami Bonkotsu and printed mainly by
Nishimura Kumakichi, with the assistance of Nakamura Sanjirô and Oyama Kangorô.
Although rather small, the books, complete with hard covers, endpapers and
slipcovers, demonstrate confident mastery of Western book design. They are all
approximately 19 x 13 cm. and the texts range from 173 pages to 282 pages in
length. The bulk of the illustrations are straightforward depictions of local
scenes.
By contrast, the five cover designs by Okano Sakae show an art nouveau
influence. Each volume begins with caricatures of the five artists, including
their depictions as Otsu-e figures and Classical poets. Endpapers generally
feature birdseye view maps, although the back endpaper of the third series,
devoted to Kyôto, shows a striking view of a maiko watching the fires of
Daimonji from a platform above the Kamo riverbed. Each section of each book is
introduced with a decorative woodcut or lithograph, and there are numerous cuts,
all of which give the books an appealing stylistic range and variety of subject
matter.
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© Boston Book
Co. 2001
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