Words Spun Out of Images:

Visual and Literary Culture

in Nineteenth Century Japan
Module 1: Samurai Portraits

Module 2: Painted Beauties

Module 3: The Literary Photograph I

Module 4: The Literary Photograph II

 Module 1
Samurai Portraits
 Watanabe Kazan, Portrait of Satō Issai
at 50 Years of Age. 1821. [Partial Close-up]

Image Credit:
Tokyo National Museum,
TNM Images / DNPartcom.
Included here by permission.

4
 Vincent Van Gogh, Self portrait dedicated
to Paul Gauguin. 1888.

Image Source:
Wikimedia Commons,
CC-PD-US

5
 Ike no Taiga, Mikami Kōken and Ike no
Taiga in Conversation. ca. 1761

Image Credit:
The University Art Museum,
Tokyo University of The Arts.
Included here by permission.

6
 Motoori Norinaga, Self portrait at 61 years
of Age. 1790.

Image Credit:
Museum of Motoori Norinaga.
Included here by permission.

7
 Watanabe Kazan, Portrait of Satō Issai
at 50 Years of Age. 1821.

Image Credit:
Tokyo National Museum,
TNM Images / DNPartcom.
Included here by permission.

8
 Watanabe Kazan, Portrait of Satō Issai
at 50 Years of Age. 1821. [Partial Close-up]

Image Credit: Tokyo National Museum, TNM Images / DNPartcom. Included here by permission.

9
 Watanabe Kazan, Portrait of Satō Issai
at 50 Years of Age. 1821. [Partial Close-up]

Image Credit:
Tokyo National Museum,
TNM Images / DNPartcom.
Included here by permission.

10
 Watanabe Kazan, Portrait of Satō Issai
at 50 Years of Age. 1821. [Partial Close-up]

Image Credit: Tokyo National Museum, TNM Images / DNPartcom. Included here by permission.

11
 Watanabe Kazan, Portrait of Satō Issai
at 50 Years of Age. 1821.

Image Credit:
Tokyo National Museum,
TNM Images / DNPartcom.
Included here by permission.

12
 Watanabe Kazan, Portrait of Satō Issai
at 50 Years of Age. 1821. [Partial Close-up]

Image Credit: Tokyo National Museum, TNM Images / DNPartcom. Included here by permission.

13
 Satō Issai's inscription above Kazan’s
Portrait of the Bakufu Confucian Scholar
Satō Issai, at 50 Years of Age

If one stroke resembles me, we could say that

it is me; and if another stroke looks nothing
like myself, we could conclude the likeness is
not my own. Resemblance and dissimilarity
concern only one's physical shape. The problem
lies beyond that - what looks alike and not - in
the realm of the spirit.

14
 Satō Issai's inscription above Kazan’s
Portrait of the Bakufu Confucian Scholar
Satō Issai, at 50 Years of Age
One's spirit is neither born nor does it vanish.
It knows no past and no present: curving round, it
takes on the shape of rivers and mountains;
solidifying, it becomes the moon and stars;
scattered, it will turn into mist and clouds. Across
the boundless universe, nowhere does the spirit
not exist. In other words, even that which fails to
resemble me may capture the essence of what I
am. So how much more an accurate image - how
could one say this is not the reality of my self?
Eighth Month, 1824 Toku-ō (Issai)
15
 Watanabe Kazan, Portrait of Satō Issai
at 50 Years of Age. 1821.

Image Credit:
Tokyo National Museum,
TNM Images / DNPartcom.
Included here by permission.

16
 Satō Issai's inscription above Kazan’s
Portrait of the Bakufu Confucian Scholar
Satō Issai, at 50 Years of Age
One's spirit is neither born nor does it vanish.
It knows no past and no present: curving round, it
takes on the shape of rivers and mountains;
solidifying, it becomes the moon and stars;
scattered, it will turn into mist and clouds. Across
the boundless universe, nowhere does the spirit
not exist. In other words, even that which fails to
resemble me may capture the essence of what I
am. So how much more an accurate image - how
could one say this is not the reality of my self?
Eighth Month, 1824 Toku-ō (Issai)
17
 Tsubaki Chinzan, Portrait of Satō Issai
at 71 years of Age. 1842. [Partial Close-up]

Image Credit:
Tokyo National Museum,
TNM Images / DNPartcom.
Included here by permission.

18
 Tsubaki Chinzan, Portrait of Satō Issai
at 71 years of Age. 1842.

Image Credit:
Tokyo National Museum,
TNM Images / DNPartcom.
Included here by permission.

19
 Tsubaki Chinzan, Portrait of Satō Issai
at 71 years of Age. 1842. [Partial Close-up]

Image Credit: Tokyo National Museum, TNM Images / DNPartcom. Included here by permission.

20
 Hirose Tansō (1782-1856),
Tansō’s Essays on Poetry.
People nowadays love writing up the smallest,
most vulgar details, thinking these are what
"real" is all about. What I take to be
"real“ though is something else: the actual
situations and real emotions of people narrated
with no ornament. Young writers today will
sketch out the hazards of infirmity and old age,
or concentrate on representing mountain
landscapes even while they toil daily as public
officials.

21
 Hirose Tansō (1782-1856),
Tansō’s Essays on Poetry.

What results is something they have neither

seen with their own eyes, nor felt within their
hearts: nothing more than rote imitation of
words by the ancients. In such cases, even if
they've represented a scene precisely as if one
had seen it, the effect is no different from an
actor dressed up in costumes. How can you say
this is what's "real"?

22
 Matsuzaki Kōdō,
Kōdō's Diary. Fifth Month, Fifteenth Day, 1824.

Scribbling in the language of a pauper though

you may occupy the center of power, or narrating
vistas of journeys from the comfort of your own
home: this leaves no sense of where you stand in
society, needless to say any trace of who you
really are. None of it is poetry. Why not? Because
poetry is based on true human feelings.

23
 Watanabe Kazan,
Portrait of a Geisha. 1838. [Partial Close-up]

Image Credit:
Seikado Bunko Art Museum
Image Archives / DNPartcom.
Included here by permission.

24
 Watanabe Kazan,
Portrait of a Geisha. 1838.

Image Credit:
Seikado Bunko Art Museum
Image Archives / DNPartcom.
Included here by permission.

25
 Watanabe Kazan, Sketches from Prison
(Rōchū Shukuzu). 1839.

Image Credit: Tahara Municipal Museum. Included here by permission.

26
 Watanabe Kazan, Sketches from Prison
(Rōchū Shukuzu). 1839.

Image Credit: Tahara Municipal Museum. Included here by permission.

27
 Chinese quatrain by Rai Mikisaburō,
from Autographic Testimony of the Greatest of Heroes. 1859.

Image Source:
Man’en gannen kenbei
shisetsu shiryo shusei, v.7.
Collection of Robert
Campbell

28
 Chinese quatrain by Rai Mikisaburō,
from Autographic Testimony of the Greatest of Heroes. 1859.

灯一幽啾
前夜人々
秋暗と復
雨蛩語た
にのる啾
坐声に々
す 似
た
り

29
 Chinese quatrain by Rai Mikisaburō,
from Autographic Testimony of the Greatest of Heroes. 1859.

Faint chirps followed by

more chirping,
As if one were talking to
a man in deep seclusion.
All through the night as
the crickets cry,
I sit before my lantern
in an autumn rain.

30
 Matsuura Shōdō, Portrait of Yoshida Shōin.
Fifth Month, 1859. [Partial Close-up]

Image Credit:
Yamaguchi
Prefectural
Archives.
Included here by
permission.

31
 Matsuura Shōdō, Portrait of Yoshida Shōin.
Fifth Month, 1859.

Image Credit:
Yamaguchi Prefectural Archives.
Included here by permission.

32
Shōin’s Postface to Portrait of Yoshida Shōin.
Here in the Fifth Month of 1859, I remain
incarcerated, and am now to be sent off east like so
much cattle. I have no idea when or whether I shall
return. Friends arranged to have Shōdō paint my
portrait, so I have inscribed some words thereupon.
Thinking back, Shōdō knows me so well: how
could he have simply drawn out my physical
shape? Besides the likeness, I have written out
words with my own hand. Here I am, on the verge
of leaving you. Friends: when you face this portrait,
think back to me over the years. I may be crucified
in the market place; but you can find me here, in a
living expression of life.
33
Shōin’s Postface to Portrait of Yoshida Shōin.

Shifu (Shinagawa Yajirō), though still so young, has

shown wisdom in his respect for me. For this
reason I cherish him deeply. Were Shifu to die for
no good cause, I would consider that a betrayal.
Likewise, were I to live in spite of virtue, I would
imagine myself betraying Shifu. Shifu: if you hang
this portrait on your wall so that both our hearts
reflect on each other, my painting will be moved
beyond tears.
Twenty first day, Fifth Month.

34
 Matsuura Shōdō, Portrait of Yoshida Shōin.
Fifth Month, 1859. ex-coll. [Partial Close-up]

Image Credit:
Yamaguchi
Prefectural
Archives.
Included here by
permission.

35
 Matsuura Shōdō, Portrait of Yoshida Shōin.
Fifth Month, 1859. [Partial Close-up]

Image Credit:
Yamaguchi
Prefectural
Archives.
Included here by
permission.

36
 Yoshida Shōin, A Glow upon My Face from
Ages Past. 1865.

Image Source:
Collection
of Robert Campbell

37
38
 Yoshida Shōin, A Glow upon My Face from
Ages Past. 1865.

Image Source:
Collection
of Robert Campbell

39
 Yoshida Shōin, A Record of My Abiding Soul.
1869.

Image Source:
Collection
of Robert Campbell

40
Yoshida Shōin, A Record of My Abiding Soul.
1869.

41
Yoshida Shōin, A Record of My Abiding Soul.
1869.

42
Yoshida Shōin, A Record of My Abiding Soul.
1869.

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