Kinseido (Ibaya Kyubei) - Tokaido gojusan tsui - Walters 95576

, abbreviated as ''Hizakurige'' and known in translation as ''Shank's Mare'', is a comic

picaresque novel The picaresque novel ( Spanish: ''picaresca'', from ''pícaro'', for "rogue" or "rascal") is a genre of prose fiction. It depicts the adventures of a roguish, but "appealing hero", usually of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corru ...

(

kokkeibon The was a genre and type of early modern Japanese novel. It came into being late in the Edo period during the 19th century. As a genre, it depicted the comical behavior occurring in commoners' daily lives. The ''kokkeibon'' genre is the successo ...

) written by

Jippensha Ikku was the pen name of Shigeta Sadakazu (重田貞一), a Japanese writer active during the late Edo period of Japan. He was among the most prolific writers of the late Edo period — between 1795 and 1801 he wrote a minimum of twenty novels ...

(十返舎一九, 1765–1831) about the misadventures of two travelers on the Tōkaidō, the main road between

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

and Edo during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

. The book was published in twelve parts between 1802 and 1822. The two main characters,

traveling Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel can ...

from Edo to Kyoto on their pilgrimage to

Ise Grand Shrine The , located in Ise, Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu. Officially known simply as , Ise Jingū is a shrine complex composed of many Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, and . The Inn ...

, are called Yajirobē (彌次郎兵衛) and Kitahachi (喜多八). The book, while written in a comical style, was written as a traveler's guide to the Tōkaidō Road. It details famous landmarks at each of the 53 post towns along the road, where the characters, often called Yaji and Kita, frequently find themselves in hilarious situations. They travel from station to station, predominantly interested in food,

sake Sake, also spelled saké ( ; also referred to as Japanese rice wine), is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made by fermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite the name ''Japanese rice wine'', sake, and indee ...

, and women. As Edo men, they view the world through an Edo lens, deeming themselves more cultured and savvy in comparison to the countrymen they meet. Hizakurige is comic novel that also provides information and anecdotes regarding various regions along the Tōkaidō. Tourism was booming during the Edo Period, when this was written. This work is one of many guidebooks that proliferated, to whet the public's appetite for sight-seeing. A second book was also written, called '' Zoku Hizakurige'', which includes material on the

Kiso Valley The is a geographical area that centers on the valley of the upper portions of the Kiso River in the southwestern part of Nagano Prefecture in Japan. It is a v-shaped valley with length of approximately 60 km (36 mi) that follows the ri ...

, Konpira, and

Miyajima may refer to: Places * Miyajima, another name for the Japanese island Itsukushima * Miyajima, Hiroshima, a former town on this island, merged into Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The name derives from a m ...

. Some of the episodes from this novel have been illustrated by famous

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surfac ...

artists, such as

Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige (, also ; ja, 歌川広重 ), born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format l ...

in his ''One Hundred Views of Edo''.

Yaji and Kita's travels

As they make their way, they leave behind a trail of crude jokes and plentiful puns. They make fun of a ''daimyō'' procession, cheat shopkeepers out of money, and get cheated in turn. At one inn, they make fools of themselves because they do not know how to use the bathtub; they burn themselves on the bottom, rather than asking for help. In Ueno, one of them pretends to be Ikku himself, before he is found to be an impostor. On that occasion, they burn themselves and debate how to eat the hot stones that they have been served by the innkeeper. They are soon revealed as fools: The stones are for drying out the

konjac Konjac (or konjak, ) is a common name of the East and Southeast Asian plant ''Amorphophallus konjac'' ( syn. ''A. rivieri''), which has an edible corm (bulbo-tuber). It is also known as konjaku, konnyaku potato, devil's tongue, voodoo lily, sn ...

to improve the flavor, not for eating. Comic events often ensue when Yaji or Kita try to sneak into bed with women, which happens at various inns along the road.

Film versions

* '' Yaji and Kita: Yasuda's Rescue'', 1927 film version * '' Yaji and Kita: The Battle of Toba Fushimi'', 1928 film version * '' Travel Chronicles of Yaji and Kita'', 1956 film version * '' Yaji and Kita: The Midnight Pilgrims'' (2005) * '' Yaji Kita dōchū Teresuko'' ("Three for the Road") (2007) starring

Akira Emoto is a Japanese actor. Career In 1999, he won the Japanese Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Dr. Akagi''. He also won the award for best supporting actor at the 7th Hochi Film Award for ''Dotonbori River'' and '' Hearts and Flo ...

Kyōko Koizumi (born February 4, 1966) is a Japanese singer and actress. She is signed to Victor Entertainment. Career In 1981, Kyoko Koizumi participated and won the Star Tanjo! programme and released her 1st single in March 1982. She gained her first num ...

Nakamura Kanzaburō XVIII , was a Japanese actor active in kabuki, other forms of live theatre, television and commercials. Kanzaburō was a versatile actor whose credits include farce, period pieces and Shin Kabuki. Lineage Kanzaburō was the eighteenth in the line ...

and a

Japanese raccoon dog The Japanese raccoon dog (''Nyctereutes viverrinus''), also known as the ''tanuki'' ( ja, , , ), is a species of canid endemic to Japan. It is one of two species in the genus ''Nyctereutes'', alongside the common raccoon dog (''N. procyonoides'') ...

Sources

*Jippensha Ikku, Hizakurige or Shanks' Mare, trans. Thomas Satchell (Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc., 1960). ASIN: B0007J7ITK. *Jippensha Ikku, Travels on the Eastern Seaboard (Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige), in Haruo Shirane, ed., Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600–1900 (Columbia University Press, 2002), pp. 732–747. .

External links

Dōchū hizakurige, selections, with print illustrations by Tamenobu Fujikawa''Tokaidochu hizakurige'', 1907 edition published by Yohodo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tokaidochu Hizakurige 1802 novels Kokkeibon Japanese serial novels Edo-period works Picaresque novels Travel books Novels set in Japan