Premise of Fidelity by Fukuoka Maki;

Author:Fukuoka, Maki;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2012-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 4.16 Kawahara Keiga, Magnolia, based on Keiga shashin sō, republished with colors in Sōmoku kajitsu shashin zufu, 1868, woodblock print, Waseda University Library

Another popular illustrated book of materia medica from this period is Illustrated Book on Materia Medica (Honzō zufu), published between 1830 and 1844 by Iwasaki Kan’en, a materia medica scholar in Edo. An extensive resource consisting of ninety-four volumes, Illustrated Book was praised for the details and elegance of illustrations by contemporary materia medica scholars; it was characterized by one as the encyclopedic resource that allowed diffusion of knowledge without one’s having to travel to distant places and lands.50 Consideration of Kan’en’s work illuminates the representational issues shared by the scholars of materia medica, and the challenges they faced in producing more reliable illustrations that embodied shin. The draft of the manuscript was completed in 1828, and the first five volumes were published in 1830. The illustrations in these volumes were in woodblocks, but those in subsequent volumes were copied by artisans by hand.51

The illustration of a Chōsen asagao (Datula alba) is included in volume 12 of a copy of Illustrated Book and offers a helpful point of contrast with how the concept of shin and botanical illustrations coalesced in works by Bokusen, Shūen, and Kan’en. Kan’en’s illustration, like Keiga’s, is indifferent to the number of pistils and stamens (Fig. 4.17 and color plate 9). Instead, the illustration looks at the plant from a broader perspective that includes the larger structure of the plant. The leaves, branches, buds, flowers, and its fruit are all present in this illustration, which focuses on the temporal stages of the blossoming, an aspect completely absent from Keisuke’s pamphlet on oleander.

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