Volume from Picture Book of the Taiko-ki (Ehon Taikō-ki 絵本太閤記)
1840s
6.2 in x 8.9 in (Overall dimensions) Waseda University Library - two page illustrations only
Waseda University Library - all pages of vol. 76
Waseda University Library - all 84 volumes Yomihon in ukiyo-e style. Ten double page illustrations. Embossed brown covers. Historical story about Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his men among which is Kato Kiyomasa's Korea expeditions. It was written by Okada Gyokuzan (岡田 玉山: 1737-1812). The links above to the Waseda University Library are from an 1797-1802 edition.
This volume from the Lyon Collection is a later edition said to be from the 1840s and lacks the interspersed texts.
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"Okada Gyokuzan... was [a] pupil of Settei. Like Kwangetsu he developed a style for minute works, and illustrated many books, of which the Tōdo Meishō Zuye (Famous Places of China), is known for his unprecedented detail works."
"Yehon Taikō-ki, represented in our collection, was written and illustrated by him. This life of Hideyoshi was very popular, and the ukiyoe painters of Edo, Utamaro and Toyokuni, are said to have made prints based on illustrations of this book. The Tokugawa government did not like the popularity of the hero of the Toyotomi family, so Utamaro was punished, and the publication of the book was prohibited."
"The original work of Taiko-ki was written by Oze Ho-an ([小瀬甫庵] 1554-1630). The book consists of twenty-two volumes, and was published first in Manji 4 (1661). Ho-an was a scholar in Chinese classics and military science. He was in the service of Toyotomi Hidetsugu, the nephew of Hideyoshi, and after the death of Hidetsugu in 1595, served Maeda Toshitsune, the lord of Kaga, as the master of military science to his son Mitsutaka. Ho-an wrote Shinchōki (Life of Nobunaga) and Tenshō Gunki (Records of wars in the Tenshō era) beside his life of Hideyoshi. Taikō-ki is considered a fairly accurate work, although it contains some inaccurate information. Gyokuzan modified some of Ho-an's work for his popular publications."
Quoted from: Quoted from: Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese and Chinese Illustrated Books in the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute of Chicago by Kenji Toda, page 335, 1931.
picture book (ehon - 絵本) (genre)
Historical - Social - Ephemera (genre)
Katō Masakiyo (加藤正清) (role)