A New Selection of Fifty Kyôka Poets (Shinsen kyôka gojûnin isshu)

A New Selection of Fifty Kyōka Poets (Shinsen kyōka gojūnin isshu) is an illustrated kyōka anthology in which Totoya Hokkei provides designs to accompany fifty selected verses, each by a different poet of the period. The conceit is a deliberate echo of the classical Hyakunin isshu, the canonical "hundred poets, one poem each" collection of waka, and the kyōka version is its humorous, contemporary counterpart in the world of Edo kyoka-e. By 1814 Hokkei was well established in the Hokusai school of surimono designers, and the volume drew on his developed manner for figural portraiture, allusive backgrounds, and the kind of subtle iconographic detail that allowed each plate to converse with its poem. The book would have been produced in small private editions on heavy paper, with embossing and metallic effects, and would have circulated among the same network of kyōka enthusiasts whose verses it preserved. The Art Institute of Chicago holds the anthology among its outstanding examples of Hokkei's illustrated kyōka publications. As a document of literary sociability in early-nineteenth-century Edo, the volume is as valuable as Hokkei's individual surimono sheets, because it captures both the visual taste and the poetic networks that sustained his career. Image courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.