Two Phases of Japanese Illustrated Fiction

Manga from the Floating World is a welcome addition to scholarship in English on the literary culture of Japan’s Edo period (1600–1868). Painted in the broadest strokes, this era is marked by three peaks of notable artistic activity: the ebullient Genroku period (1688–1704) of Ihara Saikaku, Matsuo Basho, and Chikamatsu Monzaemon; the sophisticated An’eiTenmei period (1772–89) of Santo Kyoden, Hiraga Gennai, and Ueda Akinari; and the decadent Bunka-Bunsei (Kasei) period (1804–29) of Jippensha Ikku, Tsuruya Nanboku, and Takizawa Bakin. Of these three, the second has been the least studied. Consequently, Adam Kern’s thorough consideration of the illustrated texts that were the dominant genre of popular literature (gesaku) at the time is an important contribution. In addition to a solid introduction to the genre and to its era, Kern also provides translations of three of Santo Kyoden’s kibyoshi, giving us both academic and artistic exposure to the “visual-verbal” imagination that made these works possible. Th e term “visual-verbal” is Kern’s. It applies to the illustration-text combination that characterizes the kibyoshi page. Its hyphenated inclusiveness raises a number of enduring epistemological questions that those who study visual culture must consider. Is the thought process one of seeing images? And how is a verbally produced mental image diff erent from one produced by pictures, fi gures, and other material objects? Manga of the Floating World chooses not to engage these questions directly. But it does deal with a third evaluative issue that follows from these fundamental considerations, namely whether or not illustrated literature is adolescent or childish. Kern convincingly shows us that a genre like kibyoshi is both sophisticated in its methods of expression and mature in its interests. Th e ostensible bias against the broader category of kusazoshi (illustrated writings) to which kibyoshi belong, often labeled even by their creators to be “for women and children,” is yet another element of a growing phonocentrism that by the An’ei-Tenmei period had gathered considerable strength. Kibyoshi are the manga and the comic books referred to in the book’s title. Presented with this nomenclature, we might expect the author to portray kibyoshi as a progenitor of the manga with which we are familiar today. Th is, I believe, is a natural expectation. Yet Kern actually argues against any easy linkage between contemporary manga and this older, fl oating-world type. For one thing, as a genre, kibyoshi rose up and died away during the last two decades of the eighteenth and the fi rst decade of the nineteenth centuries. Kibyoshi belong specifi cally to the world of Edo letters. Consequently, any reader who does not understand the specifi c thrust of the “fl oating world” descriptor runs the risk of misunderstanding this book. Kern’s argument against continuity from old to contemporary follows from his interest in honoring the actual specifi cs of the kibyoshi experience. Th e details that Kern provides tell us that kibyoshi died away and were succeeded by the more lengthy gokan, which lasted into the Meiji period but did not have a direct impact on early manga artists such as Kawanabe