meisho-zue　名所図会

KEY WORD :　art history / paintings

Illustrated topographies of famous places within a defined geographical region, published from the mid-to-late Edo period. Meisho-zue included information on the history of shrines and temples as well as on the special products of an area. Meisho-zue developed from *meishoki 名所記, but included more numerous and more detailed pictures. Popular illustrated handbooks of famous places produced in the early Edo period are now called kohan-chishi 古版地誌 (old editions of topography). The first example, Miyako meisho-zue 都名所図会 (Illustrated Topography of the Capital), edited by haiku 俳句 poet Akizato Ritou 秋里籬島 and illustrated by Takehara Shunchousai 竹原春朝斎 (fl. 1772-1801), was published by Yoshinoya Tamehachi 吉野屋為八 in Kyoto in 1780. Meisho-zue eventually came to focus more on illustrations than text and included drawings using the bird's-eye viewpoint *choukan zuhou 鳥瞰図法. The text had many connections to poetry, and for that reason was well received by the public. Yoshinoya, with the same writer and artist mentioned above, published the supplements, Shuui miyako meisho-zue 拾遺都名所図会 and Miyako rinsen meisho-zue 都林泉名勝図会. After the great success of these publications, many books with the name zue 図会 were produced. These included: Toukaidou meisho-zue 東海道名所図会 (illustrating the Toukaidou highway between Kyoto and Edo), the Kisoji meisho-zue 木曾路名所図会 (illustrating the Kiso highway in modern Nagano prefecture), the Ise sanguu meisho-zue 伊勢参宮名所図会 (illustrating Ise Shrine), the Konpira sankei meisho-zue 金毘羅参詣名所図会 (illustrating Konpira Shrine), as well as the Toudo meisho-zue 唐土名所図会 (illustrating famous locations in China). There were even works in this genre which were not topographies, such as the Sankai meisan-zue 山海名産図会 (picture book of speciality products). Meisho-zue continued to be published in the Kyoto and Osaka area until the Bunsei 文政 era (1804-30), and extended beyond the area in popularity. The first meisho-zue in Edo was the seven-volume Edo meisho-zue 江戸名所図会, published between 1833-36. It was compiled by three generations of the Saitou 斎藤 family, from Choushuu 長秋 to his grandson Gesshin 月岑 (1804-78). Hasegawa Settan 長谷川雪旦 (1778-1843) created the illustrations. The meisho-zue of Edo were mostly done by wood-block print *ukiyo-e 浮世絵 artists, and they greatly influenced the production of scenic view prints fuukei hanga 風景版画, especially by Utagawa Hiroshige 歌川広重 (1797-1858) and Katsushika Hokusai 葛飾北斎 (1760-1849).

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