2024.08.30
When I began to write this series of the history inscribed in Nihonbashi, what first came to mind was the novel Nihonbashi written by Izumi Kyoka, which was bound by Komura Settai. Komura Settai (1887–1940) is an artist who was active in a wide range of fields, including bookbinding, illustration, and scenographic art in the Taisho period and early in the Showa period. Though he learned Japanese-style painting, he found his job in the field of commercial publishing, not original painting, and established his own painting style called the Settai style.
When I pull out the book from the box, a brightly colored cover catches my eyes. The riverside is neatly lined with storehouses, and many ships come and go on the river. A countless number of red, yellow, purple, and white butterflies fly in swarms. On the front and back paste downs and end sheets, I can see the seasonal scenes of the red-light district in Nihonbashi as if I were secretly peeping into them. A samisen and a hand drum left on the tatami-mat of the neighboring house can be seen through the green willow. A geisha girl walking with the clip-clop sound of low wooden clogs looks over her shoulder toward a narrow alley over which the full moon is hovering, and just then …
Five drawings on the cover, paste downs, and end sheets were marvelous enough to illustrate the fascinating and heartbroken geisha girls. This book that Settai bound for the first time led to a successful career, and after that, most of Izumi Kyoka’s writings would be brought out into the world after being bound by Settai. It was 1914 when Settai was 27 years old.
At that time, the long era of the samurai came to an end and people were about to masticate the Western culture that rushed in like a surging wave. The cityscape of Tokyo, which had been gradually overridden, was like a mosaic of the past and the present. Tokyo Station was constructed over six years, when unparalleled artists, such as Komura Settai, Takehisa Yumeji, and Kitaoji Rosanjin, took a giant leap by making connections with the Nihonbashi and Kyobashi areas to the east of the station. I would like to trace those artists back to the period from the late Meiji period to the early Taisho period.
The reprinted edition of Nihonbashi written by Izumi Kyoka and bounded by Komura Settai, published in 1914 (by Chishokan). (Edited by Tokusen Meicho Fukkoku Zenshu Kindai Bungakukan, and published by the Museum of Modern Japanese Literature, 1971. Owned by the writer)
Komura Settai was born the eldest son of Komura Shigekado (father) and Mon (mother) in Kuruwa Town of Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture, in 1887. His real name was Komura Taisuke. In 1891, his father passed away from an illness when he was four years old, and his mother removed her name from the Komura family register the following year. So, he was raised by his father’s brother Komura Mankichi.
Settai moved to Tokyo in 1901 at the age of 14. The next year, he became a shosei (a student houseboy) of the house of Yasunami Kensuke who was a chirographer living in Himono-cho, Nihonbashi-ku, (currently the area near Yaesu 1-chome and Nihonbashi 3-chome) and working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, he had no intention to take over as a chirographer, and in 1903, he became a disciple of Araki Kanpo, a Japanese-style painter, with the intention of becoming a painter at the age of 16. The next year, he entered in the Japanese Painting Department of the Tokyo Fine Arts School (currently Tokyo University of the Arts).
It was just in autumn of that year when Settai got to know Izumi Kyoka through a classmate at the Tokyo Fine Arts School. Settai and his classmate happened to be talking about novels, and his classmate said, “I love nothing more than Kyoka’s novels,” reciting some paragraph of one novel with no difficulty. Settai became interested in Kyoka, rummaged second-hand bookstores for Kyoka’s novels, and was absorbed in reading them. So, binding Nihonbashi meant his first job with his hero.
The encounter between Settai and Kyoka was in the summer of 1909 through Kubo Inokichi of Fukuoka Medical College, a branch of Kyoto Imperial University, which was the predecessor of Kyushu Imperial University (currently Kyushu University), who happened to come to Tokyo (*). As Settai had been asked by Kubo to reproduce the pictures of Utagawa Toyokuni, Settai visited the inn just when Kyoka happened to come to the inn. The first impression of Kyoka, which Settai wrote in his essay titled “Hajimete Kyoka Sensei ni Ome ni Kakatta Toki” [“When I saw Kyoka for the first time”], was “a person like a fair-skinned, small and strong-minded beautiful woman dressed like a man.” At this time, Kyoka told Settai to come to see him, so Settai visited Kyoka’s home in Kojimachi Simo Rokuban-cho (currently near Rokuban-cho, Chiseda-ku) at a later date with a wooden carved jizo (Ksitigarbha) taught by the Hokkeji Temple in Yamato under his arm, suppressing his deep-rooted shyness. The relationship that began on this occasion probably defined Settai’s life. Not only was the pseudonym “Settai” given by Kyoka but Tamura Yae, who would become his wife, was also introduced by Kyoka.
When Settai was designated to work on the binding of Nihonbashi, he had been on the job of reproducing old pictures for the art magazine Kokka [Literally Flowers of the Country], and it was before working for the Design Department of Shiseido. Nihonbashi was an independent book of a newly written novel that took a year to write. Since Kyoka extremely disliked taking about the contents of his work to others, Settai had to feel his way in the job. It was not until the completion of the last page that he knew the title of the novel as Nihonbashi; therefore, he redrew the cover in haste. The image evoked from the title was the scenery of the Nihonbashi River lined with waterfront storehouses, which Settai had seen in the morning and evening when he lived in Himono-cho in the past.
(*) The essay “Hajimete Kyoka Sensei ni Ome ni Kakatta Toki” [“When I saw Kyoka for the first time”] says that Settai first met Kyoka in 1909, however, “Izumi Kyoka Sensei no Koto” [“About Mr. Izumi Kyoka”]\ says that it was at the age of 21 (traditional East Asian age reckoning), and so some chronologies say that the year when Settai first met Kyoka in 1907.
The construction of Tokyo Station, designed by Tatsuno Kingo, started in 1908 and completed in 1914. In the Nihonbashi and Kyobashi areas on the east of the station, the cityscape with a mixture of Western-style buildings and earthen-walled storehouses could be seen.
Settai wrote an essay titled “Nihonbashi Himono-cho.” This title was also used for his collection of essays published after his death in 1942. In this essay, he wrote about his memories of the house he lived in at that time as follows:
〈I was born and grew in 25-banchi of Himono-cho, Nihonbashi until 1909 or 1910. It was just at the time written in Mr. Izumi Kyoka’s masterpiece Nihonbashi, when that area was somewhat a humane place. 25-banchi was part of the left side of a narrow alley stretching from Yaesugishi, and the house I lived in was famous enough to be called Utakichi Chushin (as written in the essay, perhaps “Utakichi Shinju” [“Utakichi’s joint suicide”] is correct = noted by the writer). It had a small pond in the garden, which was not a match for that area that was crowded with small houses. The house itself was as small as just 4 ken (around 7.2 m) in frontage, but it was quite old with a Japanese-style veranda and an earthen-walled storehouse. On the second floor of the storehouse, white marks were left by scraping traces of blood, caused by a joint suicide, from the blackened wood floor. The house really seemed to be named a haunted house.〉
Nihonbashi by Izumi Kyoka, as mentioned before, is a story set in the red-light district of Nihonbashi. This district existed at the current Yaesu 1-chome and its vicinity, such as Himono-cho where Settai lived, Sukiya-cho, Motodaiku-machi, and Kamimaki-cho, until before WWII. In the story, human relationships surrounding two contrasting geisha girls, Kiyoha of Takino-ya and Otaka of Inaba-ya, are depicted. In the setting of this story, Takino-ya is located in Himono-cho while Inaba-ya has just moved to a lot on the narrow alley in Motodaiku-machi rumored to be haunted by a geisha girl’s ghost. Settai, who lived in an old house that was located at the end of a narrow alley and could be rumored to be a haunted house, must have easily imagined the geisha house at the end of the alley when he read about the setting.
Though Kyoka’s house was located in Koji-machi, Nihonbashi was such a familiar town to him that he often visited as mentioned by Settai that “The district Nihonbashi was a place Mr. Izumi Kyoka really loved” in his writings (Sangu Nikki and Nihonbashi). The membership meeting with Kyoka was always held at Hatsune, a chicken food restaurant at Daikongashi (a fruit and vegetable market) at the foot of the Kyobashi Bridge in the Taisho period. This Hatsune is a sister store run by the relative of the owner of a store with the same name (Hatsune) located in Kiwaradana mentioned in Episode 4, Part 2. It is said that Kyoka was known for disliking raw foods due to a weak stomach, and so he patronized Hatsune because well-cooked chicken would be safe. The heartwarming episode of master-disciple talks over raw foods is written in Settai’s essay, so if you are interested in it, I strongly recommend that you read it.
In the Showa period, after the meeting was renamed Kuu Kuu Kuu Kai after 9 yen and 99 sen for the membership fee, the venue of the meeting was changed to Fujimura, a Japanese food restaurant in Himono-cho. It was held on the night of the 23rd every month, and not only Settai but also novelists, such as Mizukami Takitaro, Statomi Ton, and Kubota Mantaro, artists such as Okada Saburosuke and Kaburagi Kiyokata, Miake Shotaro who was the division chief of the Supreme Court of Judicature at that time, and others gathered. This meeting, which had started in 1928, continued without adjourning any session until August of 1939 when Kyoka passed away.
Tokyo Kasai Hoken Kabushiki Kaisha located at the north end of the Ichikokubashi Bridge, on the opposite side of Nishigashi. The Ichikokubashi Bridge can be seen on the right. (Segawa Mitsuyuki ed., Nihon no Meisho [Scenic Spots in Japan], Shiden Hensanjo, 1900/Source: National Diet Library Digital Collection)
Kyoka wrote the emotional story of geisha girls in Nihonbashi, incorporating the scenery and customs of this town. In particular, the detailed expressions of the scenery of Nishigashi are impressive; the tramway called Tokyo Denki Tetsudo, which began operation in 1904, runs on the Ichikokubashi Bridge where Kuzuki who was dumped by the Kiyoha and Otaka encounter, and on the opposite side of the river, the Western-style brick-made building of the head office of Tokyo Kasai Hoken, which was established in 1887, is reflecting the red light of the Jizodo Temple in Nishigashi, which is famous as a matchmaking deity.
Nihonbashi Nishigashi Jizo-ji Temple was established in 1718, and the temple is still there after its reconstruction in 1977. Though it may be difficult to imagine from the current state of the temple hidden in an urban canyon, it bustled with crowds of people at festivals held on the fourth of every month in the past.
Followed by the publishing of the novel, Nihonbashi was dramatized. Before the play was first performed in 1915, Hanayagi Shotaro, an actor who was unknown at that time, wanted to play the part of Chise, a geisha girl affiliated with Inaba-ya, and visited the Jizodo Temple appearing in Nihonbashi to pray for the success of the stage production. His prayers were answered, and this play in which Hanayagi performed as Chise became the one that made his career. When it was restaged at Meijiza in 1938, Hanayagi dedicated to the temple Ochise no Zugaku [a votive tablet on which Chise is painted] painted by Settai, to which haiku by Kyoka and him were added. This votive tablet later became a tangible cultural asset of Chuo-ku, Tokyo, and is enshrined in the temple even now.
Nihonbashi Nishigashi Jizo-ji Temple (1-2-5, Yaesu)
The store Minatoya Ezoshi-ten was located behind the Nishigashi Jizodo Temple. This monument is put up where the store used to be, and inscribed with a picture painted when the store opened and a passage of the poem “Yoimachi-gusa” [“A Flower Waiting for a Night”] written by Yumeji.
In 1914 when Kyoka’s novel Nihonbashi was published, a store called Minatoya Ezoshi-ten launched business in 2-banchi, Gofuku-cho (currently 2-banchi, 1-chome, Yaesu), located behind the Jizodo Temple in Nishigashi of Nihonbashi. It was opened by Takehisa Yumeji (1884–1934), an artist and poet who represents the Taisho Roman style, for the sake of his ex-wife Tamaki. The store sold woodblock prints, Chiyogami (square sheets of paper with Japanese traditional crests or patterns) and envelopes designed by Yumeji, parasols, Uchiwa fans, Haneri (decorative collars), etc. An art critic Nakada Sadanosuke, who was a big fan of Yumeji and so came and go in front of the store every day, wrote about it in his Meiji Shobai Orai <Zoku> [Guide to Commerce in the Meiji period <Continued>] as follows:
〈The store of Minatoya was a two-story wooden house, maybe with 5 meters in frontage. A wooden sign embossed with the store name Minatoya of an elegant type design contrived by Yumeji himself is put up on the eaves, and a short noren (short split curtain) on which the store name Minatoya Ezoshi-ten is dyed horizontally, written from right to left, was hung under the eaves. Both wings of the store had decorative windows around 1 meter wide in symmetry, and a showcase was placed in the center of the store. Furthermore, a big paper lantern 1.5 meters long with the sign for Minatoya Ezoshi-ten was hung.〉
The decorative windows, showcase, big paper lantern, gorgeous appearance and colorful various goods to sell of the store must have greatly attracted the attention of others at that time. I hear that Yumeji elaborated the venue for his personal exhibition as well, such as hanging black curtains to darken the venue, lighting candles, and burning incense, so he must have had a capability of producing an impressive space.
Nakada also depicted two persons, that is, Tamaki in Japanese kimono who looks like a housewife in a downtown and Yumeji dressed in trendy Western-style clothing who looks like a refined gentleman. The contrast between them seems to suggest a relationship that would change later. Nakada mentioned Tamaki as “his beloved wife Tamaki” in his writing. In reality, this couple married in 1907 and had their first son, but they were divorced two years after that. Even so, they lived together and broke up repeatedly while having their second and third sons. The reason for opening the store was to make Tamaki attain financial independence.
Yumeji is three years older than Settai, born in Honjo Village of Oku District, Okayama Prefecture, (currently Honjo, Oku-Cho, Setouchi City) in 1884. When he was 15 years old, the business of his birth family closed down. The family moved to Fukuoka, and Yumeji worked as a draftsman of Yahata Steel Works, but in 1901 when he was 17 years old, he left home and moved to Tokyo. He went on to Waseda Jitsugyo and its special training course, but as he had always liked painting, he started his painting career triggered by sending a contribution.
He was just 30 years old when he opened the store. The news that Yumeji, who had already published an art collection book and been active as a budding artist, opened a store was covered by newspapers and magazines. However, the store did not keep going for long, and shut down two years after the open in 1916. It was because an encounter at this store changed Yumeji’s life dramatically. (to be continued in Part 2)
References:
Komura Settai (1996) Seiji Hoshikawa, Heibonsha
Komura Settai to Sono Jidai: Iki de Modan de Sensai de [Komura Settai and His Days: Sophisticated, Modern and Delicate] (2009) The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
Komura Settai Monogataru Isho [Komura Settai: Manifestation in His Design] (2014) Hisako Okoshi, supervised by The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Tokyo Bijutsu
Komura Settai Zuihitsu-shu [Komura Settai’s Collection of Essays] (2018) Komura Settai, edited by Koji Samada, Genki Shobo
Takehisa Yumeji Seiden [True Biography of Takehisa Yumeji] (1984) Makoto Okazaki, Kyuryudo
Hyoden Takehisa Yumeji Jidai ni Sakaratta Shijin Gaka [Critical Biography of Takehisa Yumeji: A Poet and Artist Who Went Against the Times] (2000) Hideaki Mita, Geijutsu Shinbunsha
Takehisa Yumeji no Sekai (Bessatsu Taiyo Nihon no Kokoro) [The World of Takehisa Yumeji (Separate Volume of the Sun: The Japanese Spirit )] (2014) edited by Bessatsu Taiyo Henshubu, Heibonsha
Takehisa Yumeji Taisho Roman no Gaka, Shirarezaru Sugao [Takehisa Yumeji: the Taisho Roman Style Artist – His Unknown True Face] (2014) Supervised by Takehisa Yumeji Museum, Kawade Shobo Shinsha
Editor and writer mainly on food and crafts. Author of The Secret of Rice Omelets and the Mystery of Melon Bread – The Story of the Birth of Popular Menu Items (Shincho Bunko). Editor and compiler of Hand-crafting Your Life – The Earthenware and Life in Iwai Kiln in Tottori by Noriyuki Yamamoto (Stand! Books), Nichiniimashi – Ryukyuan Cuisine and Okinawan Words that Will Create a Better Tomorrow by Ayaka Yamamoto (Bungeishunju) and more.
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