Overview

Note: This article corrects and updates information previously published on my now archived website www.myjapanesehanga.com

The print series Woodblock Supplements to the Complete Works of Chikamatsu (大近松全集 付録木版 Dai Chikamatsu zenshū furoku mokuhan), consists of eighteen large size (dai-ōban) woodblock prints, each illustrating a major character from a play by Chikamatsu Manzaemon 近松門左衛門 (1623-1724). The prints were issued in conjunction with The Complete Works of Chikamatsu (大近松全集 付録木版 Dai Chikamatsu zenshū), published between April 1922 and September 1925.

The sixteen volume set of The Complete Works of Chikamatsu, consisting of 104 plays, was compiled and edited by Kitani Hōgin 木谷蓬吟 (1877-1950), theater critic and jōruri researcher, and published by the Society for the Publication of the Complete Works of Chikamatsu (Dai Chikamatsu zenshū kankōkai 大近松全集刊行会).[1] The compilation was issued as part of the celebration of the two-hundredth anniversary of the death of Chikamatsu, perhaps the greatest dramatist in the history of the Japanese theater.

The Eighteen Prints

The prints, "woodblock supplements," play an important role in this memorial tribute to Chikamatsu and the editor Kitani Hōgin, in his introduction appearing in volume 1, expresses his gratitude to the contributing artists:

Fifteen of the volumes have a single supplemental print illustrating one of its plays, with volume 6 having three supplemental prints illustrating three of its plays. Each print was designed by a different and well-established nihonga (a modern form of traditional Japanese painting) artist including Kitano Tsunetomi (1880-1947), Ishikawa Toraji (1875-1964), Yamamura Toyonari (1885-1942), Kaburaki Kiyokata (1878-1972) and two important female painters of the period, Shima Seien (1892-1970) and Uemura Shoen (1875-1949). In producing these prints, the publisher hired two highly regarded craftsmen to work with the artists - Yamagishi Kazue 山岸主計 (1891-1984) for the carving and Nishimura Kumakichi 西村熊吉 (1861-1941) for the printing. 

The number of times each print was produced and the number of prints in each production is unknown, but there appears to be at least two different printings for each print, one which has the names of the printer and carver in the bottom margin, the other without this notation. Variations in coloration also are known for some prints, again, indicating multiple printings. 

Many of the designs have a printed gray border, reminiscent of the brocade borders found on hanging scrolls. In addition, many of the designs have deluxe highlights, including embossing, gofun, mica, and metallics. But it is not only the deluxe techniques used in the printing that make these woodblock prints so desirable, it is the different in approaches taken by the artists to their subjects, as we can see below. 

Designs from the set are illustrated both in The New Wave: Twentieth-century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection, Amy Reigle Stephens, Bamboo Publishing Ltd, London & Hotei-Japanese Prints, Leiden, 1993 and The Female Image: 20th Century Prints of Japanese Beauties, Amy Riegle Newland and Hamanaka Shinji, Abe Publishing Ltd and Hotei Publishing, 2000.[3]

[1] Jōruri is a form of dramatic narrative chanting to shamisen accompaniment that is commonly associated with the bunraku puppet theater.

[2] Transcription of Kitani's remarks appearing on page 6 of his introductory remarks in volume 1

描いた十八葉の精巧彩色大形木版畫は、現代斯道の大家十八氏(菊池契月、鏑木清方 西山翠嶂、山村耕花、菅楯彦、西村五雲、北野恒富、山口草平、小川芋錢、富田溪 仙、野田九浦、玉村方久斗、上村松園、島成園、木谷千種、石川寅治、中澤弘光、岡田三郎助の諸氏)の揮筆にかくる。かくて本著の上に一大光彩を奥へられた事は 著者の永く感銘する所である。一每卷挿入の、近松戯曲を中心とした參考資料の寫真版は、 其二三種の外は未だ世間に發表されて居ないものくみを撰んて掲載した。その他本集編纂に付て、稀籍珍書 を提供され、或は直接間接に多大の助力を奥へられた各地諸賢に對し、こへに謹ん て感謝の意を表して置く。大正十一年三月

[3] At the time of their publication, 1993 for The New Wave and 2000 for The Female Image, the entire set of prints had not yet been accurately described. This article, using more recently available sources, hopes to correct any inaccuracies or incompleteness of prior published information, including information previously published on my archived website www.myjapanesehanga.com, which can now be securely accessed at https://pages.uoregon.edu/jsmacollections/home.html

The Eighteen Prints

Notes:

Much of the below information is based on information that can be found on the website of the Chikamatsu Drama Research Institute Sonoda Women's University. specifically the following pages: [accessed 3-09-24]

 https://www3.sonoda-u.ac.jp/chikamatsu/tenji/t_2016/t_2016_01_mokuroku.html 

 https://www3.sonoda-u.ac.jp/chikamatsu/tenji/t_2016/t_2016_02_mokuroku.html

 https://www3.sonoda-u.ac.jp/chikamatsu/tenji/t_2016/t_2016_03_mokuroku.html

The entire sixteen volume set of The Complete Works of Chikamatsu can be found on the website of the Haithi Trust at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002892816 [accessed 3-09-24]

All translations are my own, with the assistance of multiple electronic translation apps, and subject to errors which I take full responsibility for. Transcriptions of the original Japanese text are in the footnotes.

Appendix: Woodblock Print Table of Contents

appearing in Volume 16 of Dai Chikamatsu zenshū

Source: copied from the website of the Haithi Trust which has canned copies of all sixteen voluvme of  Dai Chikamatsu zenshū https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002892816 [accessed 3-9-2024]

The Prints and Story Notes