Torii Kiyonaga's "Hinakata Wakana First Pattern" by Segawa of Matsubaya. Source: Tokyo National Museum

Tsutaju’s encounter with Ota Nanpo leads to the creation of kyoka collections and kyoka picture books

Ike Ike Don Don Koshodo

Tsutaju entered the world of kyoka poetry after meeting Ōta Nanpo, one of the most prominent cultural figures of the Edo period. Kyoka poetry is a literary genre incorporating social satire and irony within the waka form. During Tsutaju’s time, kyoka books, often accompanied by ukiyo-e and other illustrations, were created. Kyoka poetry became extremely popular during the Tenmei era (1781-1789), spawning numerous kyoka poets, including Ōta Nanpo. Episode 20 of the historical drama “Berabō” depicts Tsutaju’s encounter with Ōta Nanpo. Enthralled by Nanpo’s lively conversation and ingenuity, as well as a kyoka performance he attended at Nanpo’s invitation, Tsutaju resolved to popularize kyoka poetry. Meanwhile, significant progress was made in the long-running battle between Koshodo and the Jihon Wholesalers Alliance. Until then, Tsutaju had been excluded from dealings with local book wholesalers in the city, meaning that books published by Koshodo were not available in Edo. But one day, a local book wholesaler showed up and asked to purchase Kisanji’s “Mitoku Ichi-tai-mu.” Surprised, Tsutaju asked if he was okay with this among his colleagues. To which he replied, “Not stocking the most popular book of the year would be bad for a bookstore, so you can’t make an excuse, right?” Essentially, “As long as I can come up with an excuse, they’ll stock Koshodo books.” Seeing an opportunity, Tsutaju embarked on a bold strategy.

At the time, a nishiki-e print called “Hinagata Wakana Hatsumoyo,” illustrated by Torii Kiyonaga, a ukiyo-e artist who was at the height of his career in bijin-ga (portraits of beautiful women), published by the large rival store Nishimuraya, was gaining popularity throughout Edo. So Tsutaju commissioned Kitagawa Utamaro to paint a nishiki-e (colored woodblock print) of a courtesan in a style identical to Torii Kiyonaga’s, titled “Hina-gata Wakaba Hatsu-moyo” (First Motome) with just one character different, and sold it to the wealthy merchants visiting Yoshiwara. Because the artist was still unknown, Utamaro sold it for half the amount of money (deposits collected from those wishing to purchase books and other items) that Nishimuraya had, which led to many merchants switching to Koshodo. Seeing this, small and medium-sized jihon wholesalers in the city sought to capitalize on the business opportunity and pressured the larger merchants to allow them to do business with Koshodo. This allowed Koshodo to officially do business with bookstores throughout Edo. While unthinkable in today’s world of copyright, this kind of cunning strategy plays out one after another in the battle between Koshodo and the jihon wholesalers depicted in the drama. In episode 20, when an angry Nishimuraya blamed Tsutaju, Tsutaju retorted, “It was Nishimuraya who taught me that dirty ways were okay.” I’m sure many viewers felt relieved after seeing this scene.

A collection of essays by Professor Nebo, written by Nanpo Ota.
This masterpiece created the Tenmei Kyoka boom. Nanpo Ota is known as the founder of the revival of Kyoka.