This blog was written by Daphne Leibowitz during her 2024 summer internship at Ronin Gallery. Thanks Daphne for all your hard work!

Utamaro

Most well known for his prints of beautiful women, or bijin-ga, in his earlier work in the 1788 Book of Insects, Utamaro consults a less beautiful, but perhaps more intricate, subject matter: insects. Inspired by the Chinese picture books featuring detailed studies of plant life that had become so popular in Japan, Utamaro drew upon naturalistic imagery and themes for this collection. While illustrations of plants were already an established theme in Chinese and Japanese prints, insects were far less touched upon. When they did appear, it was rarely as the subject and instead as an artificial prop placed in the background of the scene. Utamaro brought life to these creatures in a way never before seen in Japan, going against the established artistic trends and setting a path for artists who came after him. This deviation from the expected subject matter of woodblock prints, namely beautiful women and kabuki theater, set Utamaro apart from his contemporaries and allowed him to create some of the most unique works of his career.

The Poems

With each insect that appears in the Book of Selected Insects, comes a short poem related to the insect it corresponds to. These poems all belong to the style kyōka, or humorous verse, a genre of poetry that while comic, was also an important method of expression in eighteenth century Japan. For those living within the strictly stratified society of Edo period Japan, kyōka was their form of self expression. The kyōka movement rebelled against the strict standards traditional to Japanese poetry, often taking parts of classical poems and then imbuing them with humor. Much of the humor featured in kyōka was considered low brow, as it often drew upon sensual themes and always deviated heavily from the established poetic standards, promoting experimentation with form. These features allowed kyōka to appeal to a wide audience, leading to its massive popularity in the late 18th century.

Although many perceived humorous verse as a lesser form of poetry, the authors of kyōka were often well versed in the classics as well. A common practice in kyōka was taking an established poem and then drawing upon its imagery to create a similar, more humorous, version of the original. Therefore, to fully understand kyōka, readers would have to be familiar with the abundance of classic poems kyōka poets paralleled, drawing a more academic audience to this “lesser” art form. Consequently, kyōka was the obvious choice for the poetry accompanying Utamaro’s prints as casual readers could have a good laugh, and those well-versed in poetry could draw their own connections.

Katydid and Centipede

Mukade (Centipede)

Could my wish be fulfilled,

I would want to be the balm

For a sore,

Dissolved

By your saliva.

Umaomushi (Katydid)

Night after night

I cry aloud

Like a “horse-driving” grasshopper

With the reins of my heart

Stretched out to you.

Mole Cricket and Earwig

Kera (Mole Cricket)

How fleeting is the life of a mole cricket.

The union between husband and wife

Is equally transient,

No matter how deep it may appear

On the surface.

Hasamimushi (Earwig)

What a fool you are,

Earwig!

Having a dull pair of scissors,

You cannot even cut the knot

You tied.

Red Dragonfly and Locust

Aka-tonbo (Red Dragonfly)

Burning with love

And

Enduring the pain in silence,

I have wasted away to a skeleton

Like a thin red dragonfly.

Inago (Locust)

Pulling your sleeve,

I made a pass at you,

But immediately saying “no”

You jumped away like a frightened locust.

How disappointing it was!

Bugs & Love

After reading each insect’s poem, a resounding theme becomes apparent: the theme of love. Most of the poems compare the emotions that come with loving a person to the mannerisms and characteristics of each insect. Some poems, like the Mukade and Aka-Tonbo verses, are romantic and heart wrenching while others, like Hasamimushi and Inago are more humorous, yet they all share this same theme. When one thinks of the more beautiful insects, such as butterflies, metaphors of love might be apparent. However, most insects, creatures like centipedes and earwigs, conjure up images of repulsion and hate for the vast majority.

The man who chose the strange theme of love and curated the poems for the Book of Insects was Yadoya no Meshimori, the leading figure in the world of kyōka. It’s clear that Meshimori considered kyōka’s unique ability to transform the established norms of poetry with humor and wit in his compiling of the poems featured in the Book of Insects. With this in mind, bug love poems begin to make sense. From the kyōka poet’s perspective, the irony of pairing imagery of common bugs with beautiful love poems must have been emblematic of the very spirit of kyōka. It is humorous that a poem would compare a woman denying one's advances to a locust or equate marriage to the life of a mole-cricket. Yet these comparisons are also insightful, allowing the reader to approach their understanding of love from a less conventional perspective, which is exactly what kyōka is meant to promote:expression that is not limited by tradition. In traditional poetry, the imagery of a katydid would never be partnered with lines elegant as, “with the reins of my heart stretched out to you,” but the form of Kyōka is what allowed these poems to be written. Perhaps one's love is more comparable to the behavior of a Locust than the petals of a cherry blossom. Kyōka empowers artists to express themselves as they wish, in whatever way is truest to them, even if that way falls outside the accepted norm.