[JAPANESE SAMURAI / HOMOSEXUAL DEVOTION]. Hosokawa Chidaruma Jikki ["Blood-stained Document of the Hosokawa Clan]

Tokyo (Asakusa): Kinjudo, 1889. First Edition thus. Very good. One four-hole-bound (yotsumetoji) volume (179 x 118 mm) bound in the traditional Japanese style (fukurotiji). Complete with 24 engraved pages on 10 leaves (two of are double-page and folding). Original wrappers, lightly stained and creased, with small marks. Small tear to gutter of leaf 5. Occasional small marks and light creases internally. PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED IN COPPERPLATE, BEING THE STORY OF A SAMURAI AND HIS DEVOTED SERVANT WHO GIVES HIS LIFE TO SAVE THE DEED TO HIS MASTER'S FIEFDOM.

"The history of homosexuality in Japan is rich and varied, with attitudes shifting significantly (truncated) over the centuries. For much of Japan's history, male-to-male relationships were accepted and even celebrated, particularly in literature and art. [...] Edo Period literature also featured tales of doomed love. 'The Blood-Stained Document of the Hosokawas' (Hosokawa chidruma jikki), published in 1892, is based on a Kabuki play and tells the tragic story of samurai Okawa Tomoemon and his servant, Innami Kazuma." (British Museum Instagram post 6/6/24).

Unusually, the text and illustrations of this book, produced by Maki Kinnosuke (Kinjudo), were executed in copperplate; they appear here for the first time. The spectacular "frontispiece" is actually a quadruple-page fold-out scene in which the Hosokawa family flees from a catastrophic fire; in the central panel the hero Tomoemon, his clothes on fire, rescues from the inflamed treasury room the precious deed to the fiefdom of his master (the daimyo Hosokawa). Toward the end of the narrative, Tomoemon can be seen rushing into said flames to retrieve the document but he became trapped; in order to save the document, he disemboweled himself and inserted the document into the gaping wound to save the documents from being destroyed. When the fire was extinguished his charred corpse was recovered from the cinders; incredibly, the bespoke documents were discovered intact (but covered with blood). The fiefdom of the daimyo Hosokawa was saved.

The present work was based on the kabuki play "Tsutamoyō Chizome no Goshuin" ("The Ivy-Patterned Blood-Stained Seal") written by dramatist Kawatake Shinshichi III (1842-1901), one of the foremost playwrights of the Meiji era. The play was first performed in November, 1889 (Meiji 22) at the Ichimura-za theater in Tokyo. Our book, which obviously has a different text, was published just one month later, in December, 1889.

The British Museum copy of the "Hosokawa Chidarum Jikki" (ORB.30/9096) clearly belongs to a much later impression with objectionably worn details, such as the shading of the horses which in our copy is dark and rich and retains the extremely fine striated lines. (Inventory #: 4243)