About This Print
For a summary of the brief life of nishiki-e shinbun (newspaper color woodblock prints) see the article Nishiki-e shinbun and Newspapers in Meiji Japan.
1 Nishiki-e Shinbun website of William Wetherall http://www.nishikie.com/stories/TNS-0838_granddaughter-in-law.html
Story Summation and Commentary by William Wetherall
Source: Nishiki-e Shinbun website of William Wetherall http://www.nishikie.com/stories/TNS-0838_granddaughter-in-law.html
Story translation (partial)
Don't take a wife with the same surname, goes a golden saying of the sages -- but [the man] broke this teaching along with the [proverbial] straw mat [on which an old men satisfy their cravings]. [The man], over 70 years of age, produced a child with the house servant. He made her his second wife, but when [officials] examined her register, she was a daughter the wife of the son of the old man had borne in another house. She had hidden this from people, called the girl a maidservant, and no one knew [who she really was]. Though calling [her] the man's wife, she was the daughter of his daughter-in-law -- in other words, his grandchild-in-law -- but to the old man's child by his first wife she would be a stepmother, and because for the [son's] wife she was a daughter, this would make the daughter a mother-in-law [to her own mother], and as the wife of the old man, her own mother would be her daughter-in-law, which makes the geneology hugely confusing. (WW)
Retiree of Kobikimachi
Tendendo Shujin
The Writer Tentendō Shujin 転々堂 主人
Sources: website of William Wetherall http://www.nishikie.com/almanac/Almanac_whos_who.htmlThe writer for this print is identified as Tentendo Shujin, a pen name for the writer better known as Takabatake Ransen 高畠藍泉 (1838-1885). His birth name was Takabatake Heisaburo 高畠瓶三郎.
Takabatake Ransen was a gesaku writer and journalist who joined Tokyo nichinichi shinbun shortly after its start in 1872. He collaborated with Yoshiiku launching the illustrated Hiragana eiri shinbun in 1875.
Japanese Transcription of Text
Source: University of Tokyo website http://www.iii.u-tokyo.ac.jp/archives/digital_archives/ono_collection/contents/item.6.N039.html [note: website is no longer active]
同姓（どうせい）を娶（めと）らずとハ
聖人（せいじん）の金言（きんげん）なるを莚（むしろ）と
共に戒（おしへ）を破（やぶ）り、七十有余（いうよ）の齡（よハひ）を以（も）て
一児（いちじ）を設（もうけ）し家婢（かひ）を挙（あげ）、継妻（けいさひ）と
せし籍（せき）を糺（ただ）せバ、翁（おきな）の嫡子（むすこ）が
妻（つま）なる者の他家（たけ）にて
産（うミ）たる娘（むすめ）にて、人にハ
秘（かく）して下婢（げぢよ）と呼（よ）び
知（し）るもの絶（たえ）て無（なか）り
しも、翁が妻と唱（しよう）
すれバ、翁の嫁（よめ）の娘にて、
則（すなハ）ち義孫（ぎそん）に当（あた）るべく、翁の嫡（こ）にハ
継母（ケいぼ）にて、妻の為（ため）にハ娘なれバ、
親実（しんじつ）の娘（こ）を姑（しゆうとめ）とし、翁の妻ハ
現在（げんざい）の実（じつ）母を嫁とするものから、
系譜（けいふ）大に混雑（こんざつ）なし、兄弟姉妹（けうだいしまい）連環（れんくわん）
してハ、本末分ち難（がた）きに至る噂（うわさ）ハ高き
愛（あた）宕の山下、芝の辺（ほとり）に寄留（すまゐ）せる某氏（それがし）が
雨の夜話（よばなし）なりし
木挽街の逸民 転々堂主人
新聞局の雇人 鈍々述
Print Details
| IHL Catalog | #458 |
| Title or Description | Granddaughter-in-law (八百三十八号 No. 838) |
| Newspaper | Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shinbun 東京日々新聞 |
| Artist | Utagawa Yoshiiku (1833-1904) |
| Signature |  Keisai Yoshiiku 恵斎芳幾 |
| Seal | 芳幾 Yoshiiku (see above) |
| Writer of Text | Tentendō Shujin 転々堂主人 |
| Publication Date |  |
| Publisher |  seal reading: top: 人形町 Ningyōchō bottom: 具足屋 Gusokuya |
| Carver |  |
| Impression | excellent |
| Colors | excellent |
| Condition | good - full size, not backed, light wrinkling throughout, lite rubbing right margin |
| Genre | ukiyo-e; nishiki-e shinbun |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Format | vertical oban |
| H x W Paper | 14 x 9 1/2 in. (35.6 x 24.1 cm) |
| Literature | |
| Collections This Print | The University of Tokyo Digital Archives Ono Hideo Collection N039 |
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