Kyōka Hyaku Monogatari

The Kyōka Hyaku Monogatari (狂歌百物語) is a kyōka e-hon published in 1853 (Kaei 6). As a kyōka-themed book on yōkai, and garnished with illustrations, it was edited by Rōjin Tenmei, and the illustrations were by Ryūkansai (Masasumi Ryūkansaijin).[1][2]

"Tōfu-kozō" from the Kyōka Hyaku Monogatari.

Summary

The kyōka was extremely prosperous in the Tenmei era, and many kyōka e-hon garnished with colored illustrations were published. Yōkai were enjoyed as the subject of kyōka, and with a focus on Ōta Nanpo who is well known as a kyōka poet, and imitating the techniques of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, an event was held where he recited kyōka about a total of one hundred kinds of yōkai, but with the intent of doing it again, he collected together the kyōka, and the book was the result of collecting together only the better of the poems.[3][4]

As a kyōka with a theme on 96 yōkai, it is divided and collected together based on each yōkai, and it recorded yōkai illustrations in various colored version of yōkai illustrations, and thus it also carries the characteristic of being an illustrated yōkai reference book.[5] The yōkai within this book were humorous existences as the subject of kyōka, and were thus existences that were joked about, it can be seen that yōkai that were once main characters of ghost stories that were to be feared or awed became characters for amusement in the middle of the Edo period.[2][4]

Koizumi Yakumo also possessed the book, and 48 poems of kyōka that he particularly liked were translated to English under the subject "Goblin Poetry". Later, Yakumo himself also garnished these notes with yōkai illustrations, and was later reproduced and published under the title "Yōma Shiwa (妖魔詩話)."[2]

References
  1. 森末義彰他 (1964). 国書総目録. 第2巻. 岩波書店. p. 498.
  2. 京極夏彦・多田克己 編著 (2008). 妖怪画本 狂歌百物語. 国書刊行会. pp. 272–274. ISBN 978-4-3360-5055-7.
  3. 兵庫県立歴史博物館・京都国際マンガミュージアム 編 (2009). 図説 妖怪画の系譜. ふくろうの本. 河出書房新社. p. 62. ISBN 978-4-309-76125-1.
  4. 湯本豪一 (2003). 江戸の妖怪絵巻. 光文社新書. 光文社. pp. 79–83. ISBN 978-4-334-03204-3.
  5. 妖怪画本 狂歌百物語. pp. 5–15.
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