Frontispieces
Caption: In support of one who honors the right, / His thoughts on his fathers’ instructions, / In the act of dispelling old anger / He kills himself and brings about benevolence.—Old Raisai [seal: Bakin]
Figure labels: Kantoku, practitioner of austeries [kneeling]. Yamabayashi Fusahachirō [standing].
Label on fan: East [right], West [left].
Written on oar: Hail Amitabha Buddha [surmounted by a Sanskrit character].
Notes: This poem is a kanshi quatrain. Raisai is another of Bakin’s alternate pennames. Kantoku is holding his fan in the manner of a sumo referee; his fan contains an illustration of a sumo ring. In his other hand Kantoku holds the ringed finial that often topped a mendicant monk’s staff. Fusahachirō holds an oar in one hand and a lock of hair in the other. The characters on the oar are meant to suggest a wooden stupa; the Sanskrit character (read ka) signifies the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. The page border incorporates snowflakes.
Caption: Scars on his body / But no flaws on his jewel-like face: / His prodigious heroism dominates the world; / A name for valor will follow. By Shunin’an. [seal: Kinrei]
Figure labels: Inuta Kobungo [center, arms folded]. Itagoki Kinta [right]. Karashirō of Shiohama [bottom]. Ushigane Mōroku [left].
Notes: This poem is a kanshi quatrain. Shunin’an and Kinrei were Bakin’s son’s pennames. The three men assailing Kobungo are dressed as sumo wrestlers; the wrestler’s apron peeking out from beneath Kobungo’s hem shows he is one, too. The page border incorporates plum blossoms.
Caption: A flute wails in the night / A crane cries in Huxiang / One is stalwart, the other fiery / Out of pity, neither injures the other.—Hōryūsha [seal: Kinrei]
Figure labels: Myōshin of Toyama [seated]. Nengyoku, the Great Guide [standing].
Notes: The poem is a kanshi couplet. Tokuda Takeshi suggests that Huxiang should be understood as Lake (hu) Dongting and the river Xiang, two of the Eight Views of Xiaoxiang, a popular poetic and artistic motif. (See Tokuda Takeshi, Ukiyoeshi no e de yomu Hakkenden jō [Bensei Shuppan, 2017], 151.) The first two characters in Sōhaku’s penname Hōryūsha are shared by the name of the pavilion on which Shino and Genpachi fight at the beginning of Volume IV, the Hōryūkaku or Pavilion of Flowing Fragrance. Nengyoku holds a flute in his left hand, tucked under his arm. The border shows seashells.
Caption: A chaste woman is like a bamboo / Her child shall exceed its parent.—Old Shinten [seal: Kyokutei]
Figure labels: Nui [standing]. Daihachi [seated].
Notes: This poem is a kanshi couplet. For Shinten, see frontispieces to Volume III. The border shows Pearls of the Law, a Buddhist motif.
Caption: Fish eyes mingle with jewels / Mugwort tangles with orchids.—Raisui the Scattered [seal: Kyokutei]
Figure labels: Hikami Shahei [kneeling]. Niiori Hodayū [standing].
Notes: The poem is a kanshi couplet. “Scattered” (sanjin) is a pun on “Mountain Man,” a common element of pennames. Hodayū is holding a box of the type severed heads were carried in for inspection. The border shows clouds.
Caption: Brief though her life may have been / The divine spirit renders personal aid.—Kinrei the Recluse [seal: Kinrei]
Figure label: Konaya Bungobei.
Notes: This poem is a kanshi couplet. Bungobei wears the white vest of a pilgrim, on the back of which is written “On pilgrimage to the Thirty-Odd Stations of the East.” As the anonymous proprietor of the Hakkenden fansite Inu no kōya notes, this suggests that Bungobei is bound for the Nagoji temple in Awa. (See “Hakkenden dai yon shū jo,” Inu no kōya, https://lovekeno.iza-yoi.net/gai20081106d.htm) The Bandō Kannon temple pilgrimage route has thirty-three stations, the last of which is the Nagoji; this temple is also the first station on the Awa Kannon temple pilgrimage route, which has thirty-four stations. This discrepancy is most likely why the vest is labeled “thirty-odd” rather than the standard “thirty-three.” Nago (or Nako) is where Bungobei hails from originally. The border shows fallen leaves.
Caption: A single dog by the door, and no rat burglars can enter / A dog barks—a dog barks—and beats a kitten at resembling a tiger.
Guarding a night / Black as leopard-flower seeds, the dog / Is not a cat: / Black-headed mice / hesitate. Mad epigrams by Raisai the Idler
Notes: The first poem is a kanshi couplet. The second is in waka form, written in man’yōgana (Chinese characters used purely for phonetic value, as exemplified in the Man’yōshū). The “mad epigram” label indicates that both are intended to be comic versions of their respective verse forms.