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MASAYOSHI, Keisai (1764 - 1824)

Tatsu no miyatsuko ('Servants of the Dragon King') The printing (key-) blocks

• The printing blocks:
  
  It was one of the rare instances when, some years ago, we had had the chance to acquire several original printing blocks, - the key-blocks -, of such an important ehon (illustrated book) as Tatsu no miyatsuko by Keisai MASAYOSHI. Whereas key blocks for single sheet prints show the outlines of the design as they appear in the finished print (just mirrored, of course), such key-blocks for illustrated books, in their original state, only show the halves of two different illustrations. This is due to the fact that Japanese (and also Chinese) books are printed on one side of the printing sheet only, and then - when bound - are first folded in the center, and then with their open ends fixed at the spine. The pictures below show samples of double page illustrations how they appear in the finished book, followed by the corresponding printing blocks in their original state - original, except for the later coloring (see next paragraph), and finally the same blocks as they look now.
  
  A former owner of the entire set of key-blocks for Tatsu no miyatsuko had the blocks with their two disparate picture segments cut in half and then the two corresponding halves combined (as they appear in the printed book). The newly assembled blocks were given a thin wooden frame for stability. Finally, since key-blocks only show black outlines which are hard to recognize, the fishes were colored in a decent way, with light colors to make them stand-out against the plain background.
  
  The first edition of the book contained haikai verses by SOGAI and others. Already in the next (?) edition the poets' names were removed, then in the 1813 edition the poems themselves (compare the illustrations in our  side-by-side listing  of the three editions). To remove names and poemes means cutting such elements from the key-blocks, which is why they are not found in our printing blocks any longer.
  
  

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• Double-page illustrations of the finished book (our sample 'B.)', Gyokai fu, with poems, but with poets' names removed):

D2                            D1

C2                            C1

B2                            B1

A2                            A1

• Reconstruction of the original state of three of the printing blocks (with later coloring):

C2                            D1

B2                            C1

A2                            B1

• State of the printing blocks as they exist now:

D1                            D2

C1                            C2

B1                            B2

A1                            A2

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