The genre of hyōbanki originally developed as laudatory reviews of Kabuki actors during the 18th century in Japan. Since the mid-18th century, it was extended to a wider cultural circle of scholars, physicians, literary artists and notorieties, with more elements of criticism. Heian Gaka Hyōbanki, a review of painters in Kyoto, dated 1856, is known as a rare application of hyōbanki to the painters in the Higashiyama Spring-Autumn Exhibition, which was begun by Minagawa Ki’en in 1792.Here we present the text of Kyoto Bunjin Hyōbanki, a newly discovered hyōbanki on the painters in Kyoto, dated the winter of 1853, which was handwritten by Yamamoto Yôshitsu. The title “Kyoto Bunjin Hyōbanki” was given to the manuscript by Yamamoto Mataichi, son of Yōshitsu around 1907. Contrary to Heian Gaka Hyōbanki, which maintains a more or less laudatory style, the 108 painters in this anonymous satire are bitterly attacked in comic references to the 108 types of love they are supposed to enjoy mainly in the pleasure quarters (yūri).Comparing it with the anonymous ichimai zuri (one sheet print) described by Tajihi Ikuo (1967), all the citations from this now untraceable print can be traced back to the text of Kyoto Bunjin Hyōbanki. Thus, Yōshitsu proves not to have beeen the author but to have transcribed it, presumably from its augmented handwritten version, in order to enrich the library of Yamamoto Dokushoshitsu school when he succeeded his father, the Confucian naturalist Yamamoto Bōyō.Among the 108 painters attacked by the anonymous author, the two top painters of the period, Oda Kaisen and Nukina Kai’oku, are respectively positioned at the beginning and at the end of the text, the conventional position in traditional hyōbanki. The two were extreme rivals and had no contact in their social life. However, in this case, Oda is the mocked more forcefully, and at the greatest length. Bōyō condemned illiterate and libertine painters, but approached Nukina and Oda, both learned painters, with a certain detachment, whereas Yōshitsu maintained an intensive intercourse with both of them, but especially with Oda, one of the painters who most frequently participated in the Bussankai annual meeting of amateur naturalists at Dokushoshitsu school.Further investigation is needed to elucidate the true author of this satire in hyōbanki style, the Kyoto Bunjin Hyōbanki, in search of the ichimai zuri lost for 55 years.
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