HIRANO, Sadahiko 比良野貞彦.

Manuscript on paper, entitled “Ōmin zui” 奥民図彙 [“Collection of Illustrations of the People in Tsugaru”].

Many fine brush & ink illus. (one in color washes). 72 folding leaves. 8vo (250 x 173 mm.), orig. wrappers (a little frayed around the edges), new stitching. [Japan]: after 1788.

A richly illustrated manuscript of an unpublished geographical and ethnographical treatise on Tsugaru, the western part of what is now Aomori prefecture in northernmost Honshū.

Referred to here as Ō in reference to Mutsu 陸奥 province, to which it belonged (and the name of which uses the same Chinese character), Tsugaru was named after the Tsugaru clan, which controlled the feudal domains that made up the area. Facing Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, the region was close to the northern frontier of what was then the extent of Japanese territory.

Our manuscript describes the people and customs of Tsugaru. First, Hirano describes the peasantry, showing depictions of male and female farmers with a child. He then illustrates several implements: a mortar and pestle, agricultural tools, a horse and its harnesses. Horses are also shown being led by a man and enclosed in a corral. Other drawings include a “log boat,” a “coastal hunting boat,” tools for collecting kelp (kombu), bird traps, more agricultural tools depicted in some detail, insects and snails, plants, a frog, fish and the hooks for catching them, crayfish, various kinds of clothing, including a leather jacket, several drawings of sleds, buildings, the shopfront of a pharmacy, and other buildings and street scenes.

Of particular interest is Hirano’s drawing of the “komuta festival” 子ムタ祭, reportedly the earliest depiction of what is now called the nebuta festival ねぶた祭 (Sukiyama Takaaki 杉山貴章, “Ōmin zui no ‘komuta matsuri no e’” 『奥民図彙』の「子ムタ祭之図」, online). One of the three big festivals in Japan’s northeast, it is famous for its large lantern floats, which are lit up and taken around the streets at night. Other highlights include a giant octopus with a seated figure next to it, executed in color.

A painter, Hirano Sadahiko (d. 1798) initially served at the Tsugaru residence in Edo. In 1788, he travelled with his feudal lord north to Tsugaru, a trip that in addition to our manuscript inspired several painted scrolls.

Our text is very rare. The National Institute of Japanese Literature records only one manuscript in Japanese libraries. We find no copy in WorldCat.

Fine copy.