Page 282 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

29 In addition to the numerous 31 For a list of extant paintings 40 Ikku 1960, 25.
references to Saigyó, one finds treating Saigyo's biography,
allusions to Kùkai (774-835), see Penelope E. Mason, "The 41 Roger Keyes, "Hiroshige's
the saintly founder of the Wilderness Journey: The Tókaidó Prints," in Tôkaidô:
Shingon sect of Buddhism; Soteric Value of Nature in On the Road — Pilgrimage, Trauel
Lady Tamamo, the concubine Japanese Narrative Painting," and Culture, ed. Stephen Addiss
of Emperor Konoe (1139 -1155); in Art, the Ape of Nature: (Lawrence, Kans., 1982), 46-68.
Nasu no Yoichi, the legendary Studies in Honor o/H. W. Janson, See especially page 47. Other
archer of the Genji in the ed. Moshe Barasch and Lucy versions of Buson's Narrow
Battle of Yashima (1185) dur- Freeman Sandier (New York, Road to the Deep North may
ing the Genpei Wars; En no 1981), 76-77. See also Laura W. be found in the Yamagata
Gyója, the eighth-century Allen, "The Art of Persuasion: Museum, the Itsuó Museum,
founder of the mountain- Narrative, Structure, Imagery, the Hirayama Collection, and
climbing cult of Shugendó; and Meaning in the 'Saigyó the Commission for the Pro-
the Heian-period scholar Monogatari Emaki'" (Ph.D. dis- tection of Cultural Properties.
Fujiwara no Kiyosuke (1104- sertation, University of Cali- A copy of a lost scroll dated 281
1177); and Benkei and Yoshi- fornia, Berkeley, 1988). I am 1777 is in the Kakie Museum.
tsune, the tragic twelfth - grateful to Laura Allen for
century Minamoto warriors. discussing with me possible 42 For a wonderful exploration
On and on, the relentless connections between the of aspects of this problem,
incantation of the Japanese Saigyó scrolls and Narrow see Timón Screech, The West-
past is invoked like an ency- Road to the Deep North. ern Scientific Gaze and Popular
clopedia. Not only did Bashó Imagery in Later Edo Japan: The
weave in narratives of ancient 32 From the "Afterthought Lens within the Heart (Cam-
Japan, as the passages quoted Introduction" to Jippensha bridge, 1996).
above demonstrate, but he Ikku, Hizakurige or Shank's
frequently alluded to China. Mare, trans. Thomas Satchell 43 SeeTakeuchi 1992,114-118.
Besides the great Tang poet (Rutland, Vt, 1960), 369.
Du Fu and Yang Hu's (221 - 278) 44 Reproduced and discussed in
"Weeping Tomb" (so named 33 Ikku 1960,19. Sherman E. Lee, Re/lections
because no one could see the of Reality in Japanese Art (Cleve-
memorial marker without 34 Ikku 1960,171. land, 1983), 280-281, no. 120.
breaking into tears), Bashó
also works in references to 35 Ikku 1960,144. 45 Ronald Paulson, Literary Land-
worthies like Yuanmiao (1238 - scape: Turner and Constable
1295), a Chinese priest who 36 Bashó 1984,41. (New Haven, 1982), 3. Timón
confined himself in a cave for Screech has argued that west-
fifteen years, and Fayun (466 - 37 Ian MacDonald, "Classical ern perspective was never
529), another Chinese priest Poetry as Cultural Signifier: taken seriously because it was
who lived in a small hut on Comic Travel Literature and associated with (western)
a high rock. It is difficult to the Emergence of National print culture. See his "The
imagine a reader, then or now, Identity in the Edo Period," Meaning of Western Perspec-
sufficiently erudite to compre- unpublished paper, 1997. tive in Edo Popular Culture,"
hend all of Bashó's many Archiues of Asian Art 47 (1994),
arcane references without the 38 Ikku 1960, 38. 58-69.
benefit of extensive textual
glosses. 39 Ikku 1960, 39. This is a typical 46 Smith 1986, no. 27 (unpaged).
goofy pun. The answer lies
30 Calvin L. French, The Poet- in the explanation "because 47 Screech 1996, vi. The quote is
Painters: Buson and His Follow- there are two of us and we from Tachibana Nankei, Record
ers (Ann Arbor, 1974), 25. come from Kanto."Two people of Pleasurable Travels in the
(futari) must turn on a pun for West, 1798.
"pig" (buta), and "Kantó" puns
on the Sino-Japanese reading
ken for "dog" (in low-class
Edo dialect pronounced inter-
changeably with kan) com-
bined with the word for "ten"
(to).