Fujikawa waka hyakushu

This 1683 two-volume woodblock-printed book in the Art Institute of Chicago, Fujikawa waka hyakushu, is one of Moronobu's contributions to the genre of waka poetry anthologies illustrated with paired pictures. The title points to a hundred-poem (hyakushu) sequence linked to Fujikawa, likely either the place name or a poet associated with the locale. Hyakushu sequences, organized collections of one hundred poems by a single poet or on a single theme, were a major literary form in classical and Edo Japan, and their illustrated editions formed an important strand of ehon publication. Moronobu's illustrations would have paired each waka with a small pictorial vignette, often depicting the seasonal, geographical, or emotional content suggested by the poem, in the same paired text-and-image format that organized his other poetry-related books. Printed in sumizuri-e across two volumes, the book represents a substantial publishing investment and demonstrates the strong market for illustrated poetry anthologies in the Genroku period. Surviving copies of Moronobu's ehon are now scarce, and this Art Institute of Chicago example provides important evidence of the breadth of his literary illustration practice during the height of his Edo career.