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spring1996 LIBRARY COLUMNS Columbia I 4 » !^'' « « «J.H4to V*-* .7 T *_itok. .T^ I »«41Utôft'aa*4r^ -t.-cf*»L*VA•ln'J-t^(m'i* ‘ s-I •• -a • * Ii ’”r.‘'' A '•ft • ‘ X A1 1 _ • I*. |-t^r't-Ht..1IIi—Bfitf98l-PJ»-,IL^w*,kkj^f.it.Ir•"-<f.“i»ktuK.»...mCli#sAi^*£f^-.^'>-M'lîi..ftft,e:k&t.'j-'r#i,i!,...J«*»i/Ub«.O*-fi1*eI-tti'iij,"u^^'•:^r»f-'-•'^*c''#^'^-ii.:«^rs.kiSiicu'jk‘!..'.-.i-g'SV*-».J.kr3.*->?*i..<.''..*''*i?-*LS*u»ik•'*A•l»4.—^-'»-->s«-,ii.’..4Ui•4*A•f''A;Ai•.,t1fh®ifCb•,>ti.HLi'ik-«U•i'aj.•iC'MviA-Mbt4''»1Ub-•-'A•*e4«-1‘«-i*?»1*f•iWi'a'J•i-£Si.'»'s^'«l*«..i•'i.-l>*-*ir•A*i«tt'‘)i'A.-'fah«:ikt.t-i>-•W.2T-4•-.b?r'*f'b**’a'it>i•'V^.,4f‘'*ib*“t‘-if»<’*>!i•.tt^'4:-'.wri»«*a’«V /«i..* I* _ .A^-S,'*-*=V.4s.*,•1>^{•*4.«JV'w»«mJ'«>••».:*<4••.i•t-1*•*I».w«**;•**^^'.Att<.f-11.^w-,«**.4.•..:1-f'a»a!•'v^.XJ.<•A,.A•_%k’,^•-il>»^•Ak*•/k-•fJ.t1^^f>>.«tX.f..iftwX.•>*•'.:«^4fW1Awft•*(A«t.fiix-t*44•U“^!ji•|>kL'fj**.••i•*•**t. -S-M.'-_iIîartJiim^N,kr[ii4.«jti'-lffui'.%t^*.tAs1o1-tt,,r'-i--ftf£**-att•-4:-4|aa4J*4ffHtitt.•«h’kt.j*.4Jr>«f*j,j4k.l--tfi.rSî«.-.k-t'.I-'W«>f«4iA»*I*-#tJ*,Tr•S«'kkM*t4.-?4*;-5f;aa«Ca••fikT’Tit».wU'-“1'^4Mf-*..t»-’14i-kJ.w«VM•\jfVbt^-tJI-•hV•fffr•1.itt•.ti'44•f»k>.**b,.^.*r^**-'4-atN._»t.a-*e^-4î^.m...aSJ1.*-1‘'i%»i-kla£1>1S-J1'l.U.ma«li*'*6‘Yf’e“if'•-'tArh.f-:.if-t>I»f.nt’’,1 __ M-.».4-'k.*•41"41**f•C-*f*/•t1^M7-;•^»•-c•a'kVl^*b'.-.-’’—kr•'i'*'j4»'-•JL»a-'Jf•Af"fttt->'IW-••*,>•*iA-'*,^H’fa»%4ff-t*mttfA't»«t*,•M.^’o«“>*•^f.*fIj>«•t*t.a«A**A:>'<f•tMC4J«f«^.4^k.^b«•,f*^MtV•tA4».f*.*t.h»«tt.f-4a»to•«mt*'M«J.?1yb•At•«b'«»•*4«a_•..*b.a:I«-bJAfBtb.rÎtt.;M•J•kf.rt*yi1ak'<if1*.f.a.t*1<i.AM«•'»*V..ir..AfI*«tj*«*r4<.-i*itJ.«w««rjf‘’ffto•t-^’.4»mtb:w<i.*****ag«rbi-w'>kk%-'a.*>*.'f1-!•*4t..•*'f•-••>^«-.j'44i.i*k-r~:H,4S.ji•e,•_1*bia£fff>'t'.4tt7.f>*'.•rut»!4s.-*)'..'fkWâw1«*'t,•ftJ1'"*4J•1*i^'l-J*«•k:k''ia>'..-fAi.bJ1tH-I*<•.•ir.:>;*-<TTnuS#Wlf-it*?•'•«>'«f'...ta.'*Af';•t>t-t_t4*'iw’V''Z-i''L«1a-..'-r-k-«,U,,lJ'*<l)t.ii>% ft ‘-4-^ ki - •'^Vt'*ifAV\„*f''f*t*,“«a... 4* ;«£1lAW4t.St«4ii•ik<-%&9a¥-t-"kV4kfftt.yJ>tf*i»t•^•f«Jfft.*tt-Iffcsmt<%c.-•S4':f4t»','Mf*.-ht:tk.^ff4Jtt.j^«.i':%-. i W «4 ,?.aei•k!'k-.4«...C*-fk''Alt#..lki..:4kl.-if7t.W..«mft;z«;AtH,m..«m:ipr!:*f-^lr,k.ii“.i.M'A•i « t»•-'.at'«.-;u«•,.••I.Kif..tI*.^t^t-m.C*S«.V';ia...f.5•,m*f01*4.t4?-.*Af7fc'.»IW^Vf*V'.»•'t»,f;_*'i-4t•»i.'».WV.'«a-.*'....:I,f»-I..f>-4-it3*.'.'Ii^«VvJfk_*UkkO‘'.fi,t4AVff.<’t«t.*4«i'...-•'•.*,*af^J»*f«.?t'tIH,'*••..-*a-fL'44«..t?4kffSff**.c-t•t».'S!4aUI*4»>i.>*.,I_t00.tT'Al.j34i"£^'Ri'iU«wiV.ii1 M-.'*k4_ COLUMBIA LIBRARY COLUMNS Volume XLV • Spring 1996 • Number i Contents Preface Michael Stoller 3 PicturedFiction: PopularNovelsofNineteenth-CenturyJapan in the StarrEastAsian Library Henry D. Smith II 5 WritingPlaces: Chinese Local Histories ROBERT HYMES 15 Labyrinths: TheAbe KoboCollection Amy VladECk Heinric:h 21 A TreexvithDeepRoots: The StarrKorean Rare Book Collection Amy VladECk Heinrich AND Amy Hai Kyunc; Lee 27 OurGrowingCollections 31 Contributors to ThisIssue 42 Twoissuesayear•Publishedby The Friends oe the Coeumiua Libraries 228ButlerLibrary,535West 114thStreet,NewYork,NY1()027 COLUMBIA LIBRARY COLUMNS Thk Spring 1996 Issue Michael Stoeler, Editor i l_n keeping with Library Columns desire to highlight the breadth and depth of all the collections of Columbia Libraries, I have asked C. V. Starr East Asian Library Director Amv V. Heinrich to guest-edit this issue devoted to the extraordinaryresources of that library and the research it inspires. The fruits of her efforts are ap- parent in the pages that follow. Henry D. Smith provides a fascinating ac- countofnineteenth-centuryJapanese gokannovels, agenre ofwood-block literature interweavingtextsandillustrations,which presaged the modern Japanese love of comic books. Robert Hymes acquaints us with Chinese local histories, a body of literature where the needs of government bu- reaucrats and the pride ofthe gentry combined to describe the fabric of local life in China with extraordinary detail. Our guest editor discusses StarrLibrary’sAbe KoboCollection and helpsustograsp thesubtleandil- lusive brilliance of this twentieth-centuryJapanese novelist, pla\Avright, andpoet.*FinallyHeinrichandStarrLibrary’sAmyHaiKyungLeepresent an overview ofColumbia’s Korean rare book holdings and in particular Starr’s Yi Song-ili Collection, which displays Korea’s unique place in the history of Asian printing. And of course “Our Growing Collections” testihestothecontinueddevelopmentofColumbia’slibraryresourcesand to the exceptional generosity of our donors, who make that growth possible. AllEastAsiannamesinthearticlesarepresentedinthetraditionalmanner,withsurnamefirst. PICTURED FICTION: PopularNovels ofNineteenth-CenturyJapan in the StarrEastAsian Library Henry D. Smith II T ^he most striking feature of the thriv- ing world ofJapanese popular fiction in the mid-nineteenth century was the dominance of a comic-book type format that wove the written text through and around elaborate visual renditions of the narrated action. The C. V. Starr EastAsian Library holds some two dozen examples ofthis intriguing type ofbook, representing fourteen different writers and nine artists.^ While only a scattered selection, it is diverse and interesting enough to provoke a rethinking ofwhatwe mean by “literature” inJapan — ofthe transition from Tokugawa to Meiji and by extension in the aston- ishingcomic-book culture ofJapan today. The story begins in the seventeenth century, in the emergence of a popularmarketforprintedbooksinJapan toserve the newurban concen- trations that appeared in Kyoto, Osaka, and Edo as a result of political reunification under the Tokugawa shoguns after 1600. Commercial printing in Japan began in the imperial capital of Kyoto, stimulated by the seizureofstocksofmovabletypeforChinesecharactersfromKoreaduring Hideyoshi’sinvasionsin the 1590s. Publishersrevertedquickly,however, to the wood-block technology that would remain dominant until the 1880s, sustained by an artisanal craft ofremarkable sophistication.'^ One critical advantage ofwood-block over movable type was the ease ofinterweaving imageandtexton thesameblockinaseamlessmanner,providingeasyop- portunityforthe comic-bookstyle. 5 [ ] Henry D. Smith II Early printing in Kyoto concentrated on olderworks ofliterature, both in Chinese and in classical Japanese, with few illustrations. With the growth of a popular print culture, however, and its spread to neighboring Osaka, the pictorial emphasis became greater, partic- ularly for the emerging townsman literature ofthe time. Still, asonediscoversin the novels of Ihara Saikakn, the illustrations occupied separate pages apart from the text, much in the manner of the traditional scroll painting, in which text and image were regularly alternated. Itwas ratherin the shogiinal capital ofEdo Fig. 1.("overoffirstsectionofNuretsubnmenegura no karakasa(Nest-UmbrellaforaDrenchedSwallow), (now Tokyo) to the north, where the con- 1814;designbyUtagawaToyokiini. straints of tradition were fewer, that the inte- gration of text and image on the same page samurai writer who called himself Koikawa was systematically developed. The process Harumachi (“Loveriver Springtown”) used it began with simple books of folk tales and foraparodyofanoldChinesestory,awittytale legends aimed at areadership—perhaps more of a country bumpkin who dreamed he had — accurately, a viewership that was not wholly visited the Edo pleasure quarters and become literate, providing only occasional patches of a true rake.^ This was the first of the kibyoshi simple narrative text within the pictures. (yellow covers), which lasted for some two These small pamphlets came to be known as decades as a critical genre in the remarkable kusazdshi, or “grass pamphlets”—perhaps be- parodic culture of Edo that was spearheaded cause of the cursive “grass” phonetic script, by a creative alliance of urbane samurai and perhaps because the cheap paper was kusai sophisticated townsmen. The kibyoshi were (smelly). They emerged in the late seven- illustrated by such leading ukiyo-e artists as teenth centurv, and flourished in Edo in the KiyonagaandUtamaro,andachievedalevelof middle decades of the eighteenth century, witandsophistication thatbeliedtheirappear- distinguishedbythe colorsoftheircovers,var- ance as chapbooks for the semiliterate. It was iouslyred, blue, orblack. the increasingly frequent tone of political The kusazoshi format was turned in a radi- satire that finally brought this particular stage cally new direction in the year 1775, when a ofkusazoshi to an abrupt end in the shogunal 6 [ ] Pictured Fiction reformsoftheearly 1790s, inwhich somelead- by Edo publishers in the years 1804-1809, was ing kibyoshi writers and their publishers were a new type ofcover to replace the older plain censored orpunished. kibyoshi “yellowcover”towhich aprinted title The kusazoshi in the Starr Library collec- cartouche was pasted. The gokan were now tion represent the next stage ofdevelopment provided with full multicolor covers in the that followed the reining in of the kibyoshi manner of single-sheet ukiyo-e “brocade spirit. The genre became tamer politically but prints,”afeature that much enhanced the aes- more fantastic in contentandmore popularin thetic appeal ofthe book itselfand provided a — audience not in a reversion to a less literate special lure when displayed on a bookseller’s readership,butratherasacreativeresponse to shelf. In design, the successive colored covers the rapid growth ofliteracy among all classes to the sections ofa singlevolume often consti- — that was conspicuous from the turn of the tuted one continuous composition although nineteenth centurv. Some of the literarv one couldviewitas such onlybyflippingback j / genres that thrived in this period consisted and forth. Figure 1 shows the first cover of — primarily of text, notably the yomihon liter- Nuretsiibame negura nokarakasa (Nest-Umbrella ally, “books for reading,” a term that implicitly for a Drenched Swallow), published in 1814 suggested the more pictorial alternative of with text by the renowned kibyoshi writer kusazoshi. The new development in picture Santo Kyoden and pictures by the leading hctions was simply a further evolution of the ukiyo-e artist of the day, Utagawa Toyokuni. kibyoshi, now less parodic in spirit and more The actor-like appearance of the protagonist sustained in length, consisting of three or shown in the cover is no coincidence, since more covered pamphlets bound togetherwith Toyokuni was known for his actor portraits, silk thread to form what from an early point and Kyoden’s intricate tale was a skillful weav- weretermedgdknnkusazoshibythepublishers, ing ofvarious kabuki plots with folk tales and “bound-together”worksofkusazoshi.As in the historical legend. Theumbrellapattern on the past, the smallest unit was a set ofhve folded- kimono echoes the title ofthework. oversheets,which askibyoshiwould constitute Figure 2 reproduces a single two-page a single pamphlet, but now the bound- spread from Nest-Umbrellafor a Drenched Swal- — together multiples of five typically reached low the title ofwhich was taken from a haiku thirty to fortysheets (sixty to eighty pages) for byKikaku (“Letmelendyoumyumbrellafora the single volume (or two-volume pair) that nest, rain-drenched swallow”), in allusion to would be put on sale in bookstores. oneeventin theconvolutedplot. Hereweview One distinguishing feature of the new the penultimate scene of the book: the fate- gokan format, which was gradually developed ful destruction of Sagami Jiro Toshiyuki 7 [ ] . } ' . f mm M ' . i^‘ •,..i>5li' >m- ( .„-•, vttf:,: '0,‘i A . ’fc.^^*»**m'* '-I''-‘S’* vp .:.~ \ ... u 'w ,i|'' • .. --sr IhAt ;« X 1, ^6>/1*y>;*»'. ’:f!T ,,A'I<?„ ^ *1r-.^'^ri î..:%fiV-7»«:|Iff ^ 7Hih?i \ 'i ,'j">t“S A<•^# A*N <r*; ?ritv£4 /f''~i k.- . .‘ û''hJ-If #f T^W'f'‘CH -'AN V;V *’^''\‘ : *‘4 rl!f«%^.r€t r>.'*H'%W;Sî y "if 'f A‘'*' .V^T{^-„ yi ^ >::. /1''M'"a{ •!..' "c;- >Z:’^'4M-0m'&‘#'x¥1-'~‘V--f4.Mix'F»f-’4 .2L<J'4iri ,r. -C~-* >,'*- i/ A.b j ^4i^.r'r.y K ^•q:?-'- >-> -.i, . V'' >f^^:.F c<> < ^ . I'r-r. ;'|, i^. • /'''•ij,i*^-'f»'/\V.JA» '/*/'-' '>iV';w,'v,4'.»,^.’/||>-',.Cv,>\ifit,f* i,\^y>»4• '>. .'^1-V •>, :"J?.,">'.'-.•>.*-..>V»,L*.V.«>‘.#f<•‘v-\.;**•'*i-P/<£< ; -..’ "'^;» ' :C,•: Fig.2.ScenefromNuretsubamenegura nokarakasa (Nest-UmbrellaforaDrenchedSwallow), 1814,33b-34a;textby SantoKyodenandpicturebyUtagawaToyokuni. (in the center, identified by the encircled fully indicated by two separate codes, one of Chinese character for “Toshi” on his robe), matching symbols and the other of Chinese who is zapped by a mirror ray from the heav- numerals. enly god to the upper right and turned into a The gokan remained the mainstream of giant rat, shown escaping to the upper left in fiction production in Japan for over six successive stages. The picture is thus intended decades, centered in Edo and distributed to be read as it progresses from right to left, nationally. In sheer number of titles, gdkan justasin ascroll painting, following the narra- accounted for over two-thirds of all new Edo tive action. The sequence of the six discrete fiction, and for the decade before the Meiji blocks of text, similarly running in a general Restoration of 1868, one compilation lists a rightto leftand top to bottom pattern, is care- total of 371 gokan, 88 percent of the total of 8 [ ]