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When I pat my cheek, the mosquito chants in my ear from the series Senryū manga

 

Japanese Color Woodblock Print

When I pat my cheek, the mosquito chants in my ear

from the series Senryū manga

by Kondō Koichirō, 1930

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IHL Cat. #1548

About This Print

Note on transcriptions and print titles: All print titles for this series of prints are more-or-less descriptive of the images, enhanced, perhaps, by isolated words taken from the short poem on the print. They are in no way translations of the senryū, which are extremely difficult to translate, as concisely explained by Teruko Kumei, as follows: 

Since a senryu is very short, one might think that the translation is simple. On  the contrary, the translation is quite difficult for that very reason. In order to make a poem short, the senryu poets economize words and cut off explanatory expressions. If the readers share the same culture, it is easy for them to understand the  poem's message. If not, the poem is hard to figure out and sometimes incomprehensible.
[source: "A Record of Life and a Poem of Sentiments": Japanese Immigrant "Senryu," 1929-1945, appearing in Amerikastudien / American Studies , 2006, Vol. 51, No. 1, Multilingualism and American Studies (2006), pp. 29-49 Published by: Universitätsverlag WINTER Gmbh.]

This print is one of at least forty prints created by the painter/manga artist Kondō Kōichiro 近藤浩一路 (1884–1962) and the poet/journalist Inoue Kenkabō 井上剣花坊 (1870-1934) in 1930, which pair a senryū, almost all of which were written by Kenkabō, with an illustration by Kondō. In this print the senryū reads 煩ぺたをたゝけぱ耳で蚊が唄ひ "When I pat my cheek, the mosquito chants in my ear" - and the illustration pictures a man seated in a wicker chair eyeing a mosquito buzzing around his ear.  

About The Series Senryū manga

In 1930 the painter/manga artist Kondō Kōichiro (1884–1962) and the poet/journalist Kenkabō Inoue (1870-1934) collaborated on a series of at least forty woodblock prints containing Kenkabō's senryū (short humorous verse), or those he has chosen by other poets, along with Kondō's illustrations, titled Senryū manga 川柳漫画.  The prints seem to have been grouped together in portfolios rather than sold individually and were published by Senryū Manga Kankōkai 川柳漫画刊行会 , most likely a creation of the two artists.

The National Diet Library has several prints from this series in their collection along with images of a portfolio cover, table of contents (although the table of contents does not match the prints they show as being in the portfolio) and colophon. (Go to http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/1015589 to see their holding and see the pictures below.)

Portfolio cover of collection 2
source: National Diet Library

 
click on image to enlarge
source: National Diet Library

 table of contents
日本美術院同人近藤浩一路氏畫
Kondō Kōichiro, member of Nihon Bijutsuin
柳樽寺井上剣花坊氏撰書
Ryūsonji Inoue Kenab
ō editor and writer
川柳漫畫第二集豫定
Senryū manga, second collection

followed by the listing of four senryū
以上

一部賣定價金壹圓貳拾錢
繼續會員に限り金  壹  圓
[pricing structure]

 
click on image to enlarge
source: National Diet Library
colophon sticker from back of portfolio
明治五年六月廿日印刷
Printed: June 20, 1930
明治五年六月廿一日発行
Published: June 21, 1930
定...
[pricing information]
東京市下谷区中根岸七十二番地 [address]
反印刷人 武田基一 
Printer: Takeda Kiichi
東京市下谷区中根岸七十二番地 [address] 
彩堂内
Bokusaidō uchi
発行所 川柳漫刊行會
Publisher: Senryū Manga Kankōkai 
[followed by contact information for publisher]

What are Senryū?
Sources: Light Verse from the Floating World, Makoto Ueda, Columbia University Press, 1999, p. 32-33; Senryu Japanese Satirical Verses, R. H. Blyth, The Hokuseido Press, 1949.

senry is the expression of a moment of psychological insight into the life of human beings; nature is either absent or a mere background.  Like haiku, it is a short unrhymed verse with the 5–7–5 syllable pattern. Unlike haiku, however, it requires no word implying the season of the year, as it draws less on nature than on human nature. Whereas a haiku poet in general tries to capture a moment of insight into the mysterious workings of the natural world, a writer of senry keenly studies various aspects of the human condition and reports his  findings in a humorous way, the humor sometimes crossing over to the territory of satire.

The word senry is derived from the name of a person, Karai Senry (1718–1790), who lived in the downtown district of Edo. His real name was Karai Hachiemon, and he made a living as the head official of his ward.  In 1757, for unknown reasons, he decided to make a debut as a master of maekuzuke, a verse-writing game played by a good many  people in Japan at that time.  Senry, which literally means “river  willow,” was the professional name he adopted on becoming a master.

The revitalization and modernization of senry in the early 1900s is credited to two journalists who worked for the daily newspaper Nihon Shimbun.  The first, Sakai Kuraki (1869–1945), promoted the restoration of the free spirit of senry.  His  successor at the paper, Inoue Kenkab (1870–1934), encouraged senryūwriters to take up topics characteristic of the emerging new society through his column called “Shindai yanagidaru” (Yanagidaru on Modern Topics).

Less than one year after the inauguration of Inoue's column, the number of contributors of senry to the paper had increased to more than three hundred.  Soon senry groups were being organized all over Japan, many of them starting their own magazines. By 1912, the number of such magazines published in Japan had reached fifty. Many major newspapers, weeklies, and monthlies also came to devote space to their readers’ senry. The trend accelerated with time so that in 1935 of the more than two hundred national and local newspapers almost all had space dedicated to senry.

About Inoue Kenkabō
Source: http://archive.li/f08u7

Inoue Kenkab (1870-1934), writer of senryū (short, humorous verse), was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1870. His real name was Inoue Koichi.

After working as a substitute elementary school teacher and a reporter for a local newspaper, he moved to Tokyo in 1900 and began writing the arts column for the magazine, Myogi. Three years later, he joined the Nihon Shimbun newspaper. Using the pen name, Kenkab, he began a column called Shindai yanagidaru, which advocated a new style of senryū.   

In 1905, he founded a circle known as Rysonji Senry Kai, which brought out its own magazine, Senry. After retiring from Nihon Shimbun, Kenkab continued to run the senry sections of the Kokumin and Yomiuri newspapers and resurrected Senry in 1912, renaming it Taisho Senry
to mark the beginning of the new era. All during this time, Kenkab continued to encourage innovations in the senry genre.

With the arrival of yet another era, Showa, in 1926, he again changed the name of the magazine, this time to Senryjin. He also wrote the treatises, Proletariat Literature and Bourgeois Literature, and Senry odo ron ("Royal Way of Senryū"), and contributed pieces to the magazines, Nihon oyobi Nihonjin ("Japan and the Japanese") and Kaizo ("Reconstruction"). 

Kenkab's senry are characterized by their grandeur and generosity. Although their aims were different, he and Sakai Kuraki shared the reputation of the most outstanding revivers of senry. Kenkab had disciples all around Japan, including Kawakami Santaro, Murata Shugyo and Kijir (novelist Yoshikawa Eiji's senry pen name). His works include Shin senry rokusen ku ("Six Thousand New Senryū"), Senry o tsukuru hito ni ("For Senry Poets") and Ko senry shinzui ("The Essence of Classical Senryū").

In 1934, Kenkab came to the Shotoin temple in the precincts of Kenchoji temple to write a biography and recuperate from an illness, but he died later that year in September, at the age of 64. 

Print Details

 IHL Catalog #1548
 Title/Description When I pat my cheek, the mosquito chants in my ear
 
煩ぺたをたゝけぱ耳で蚊が唄ひ hoppeta o tatakeba mimi de ka ga utai
 Series Senryū manga 川柳漫画
 Artist 
 Kondō Koichirō (1884–1962)
 Signatures 
浩一路画
Kōichiro ga
剣花坊
Kenkabō
 Seal none
 Date June 21, 1930 
 明治五年六月廿日印刷 Showa 5th year 6th month, 21st day, printed 
 明治五年六月廿一日発行 Showa 5th year 6th month, 20th day, issued 
 (dates are taken from the table of contents of the portfolio in the collection of the National Diet Library)
 Edition first and only
 Publisher 川柳漫画刊行会 Senryū Manga Kankōkai 
 Printer 印刷人武田基一 printer Takeda Kiichi
 Impression excellent
 Colors excellent
 Condition excellent 
 Miscellaneous 
 Genre senryū manga
 Format chuban
 H x W Paper 9 1/4 x 6 13/16 in. (23.5 x 17.3 cm)
 H x W Image 9 1/16 x 6 5/8 in. (23 x 16.8 cm)
 Collections This Print
 Reference Literature
last revision:
7/29/2021
5/4/2021