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Yo よ from the series Kyōiku iroha tango

Spoiled Chinese Battleship Chinen from the series Comical Art Exhibit of the Sino-Japanese War
 

Japanese Color Woodblock Print

Yo よ from the series Kyōiku iroha tango

by Kobayashi Kiyochika, 1898

Tea House at Imadobashi (after Kiyochika)


IHL Cat. #763

About This Print

One of eighteen prints issued as part of the comic series known as An Alphabet Soup of Moral Issues (Kyōiku iroha dango,) issued between February 1897 and March 1898.  Also seen translated as ABCs of Education, the series illustrates didactic poems in the order of the iroha syllabary with accompanying text by Koppi Dōjin [the pen name of the Nishimori Takeki 西森武城 (1861-1913), one of the chief comic writers for the newspaper Marumaru chinbun].1

While Smith notes that there are twenty-one prints in the series, "the iroha syllabary proceeding only as far as “ra” and apparently skipping “ne”, for a total of twenty-one,"2 the National Diet Library's accordion fold book containing the series only displays eighteen prints.3

The Text Transcribed in Romaji
Source: website of Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften der Universität Wien

Koppi-dōjin

Jan… jan…to nemimi o odorokasu hanshō/ no ne, higoroyōjin-bukai oyaji hatto me o samashi oyaji “Sora/ kaji da kaji da, mina okirookiro, ee nani o guzuguzu shite/ iru no da, yōjin-kago o dase yōjin-kago o,menuri no tsuchi wa/ dō shita, tansu wa mō jō o oroshita yo, kono zaru e/setomono o irete, naze sonna ni furuete i/ru no da, nemaki ja kaze o hiku,hayaku kimono/ o kigaero, konna toki nya awatecha ikanai/ chan to dokyō osuete,“ nyōbō “Dochira ga awatete oru no da ka/ wake ga wakaranai, mā omae-sanshizukani o-shinasai, mada rokuroku himoto mo/ tadasanaide“ oya”Sonna nonkidakara komaru yo, tōkerya ii ga/ moshi himoto ga chikakatta hi nyā, kore dakeno mono ga mina hai ni natte/ shimau ja nai ka” nyōbō ”Datte futatsu-ban dakaradaijōbu desu yo” oya “Futatsu-ban darō ga mitsu-ban darō ga yōjin ni muda wanai, tonikaku mā/ himoto o mite koyō” nyōbō “Moshimoshi kono ame no furu no nizōri jā ike/masen yo” oyaji “Nani tenki ni natta toki no yōjin da”

1 Kiyochika: Artist of Meiji Japan, Henry D. Smith II, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1988, p. 17, footnote 119. Also see the articleOne Hundred Victories, One Hundred Laughs to view another series of comic prints containing commentary by Nishimori. 
2 Ibid.
3 National Diet Library from the Meiji Era http://kindai.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/995317

Print Details

 IHL Catalog
 #763
 Title or Description Yo よ (Yōjin ni shiku wa nashi)
 Series 教育いろは談語 Kyōiku iroha dango (Alphabet Soup of Moral Issues or ABCs of Education)
 Artist Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915)
 Signature
Kiyochika 清親 
 Seal Kiyochika 
 Publication Date 1898 2nd month (Meiji 31) 　
 Publisher
Takekawa Seikichi i武川清吉 followed by address (Note: the prints of Sawamuraya Seikichi were sealed Takekawa Seikichi starting in 1876.)  [Marks: seal 26-133; pub. ref. 459]

Top half of cartouche provides printing and release dates.
明治卅ー年二月 日印刷
仝年仝月 日発行

Bottom half of cartouche provides publisher information and reads:
印刷並ニ発行人　日本橋区本銀町二丁目十二番地武川清吉 
 Carver
 Impression excellent
 Colors excellent
 Condition fair - overall soiling especially along right side and margins; not backed; repairs from verso along right margin including filling in of paper loss top right corner
 Genre ukiyo-e; fūshiga; giga
 Miscellaneous 
 Format vertical ōban
 H x W Paper 
 14 5/8 x 9 3/4 in. (37.1 x 24.8 cm) 
 H x W Image 13 1/4 x 8 7/8 in. (33.7 x 22.5 cm)
 Literature 
 
 Collections This Print
 Institut für Ostasienwissenschaften der Universität Wien 11030-07; National Diet Library http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/995317