Yoshiki Onuma
Humanities Division, Reference and Special Collections Department

This article is a translation of the article in Japanese of the same title
in NDL Monthly Bulletin No. 584 (November 2009).

In the late Edo period (1603-1867), there was a group of writers and artists called Tankikai (lit. club to appreciate rare objects) for bringing along and appreciating rare calligraphy works, paintings and antiques. The meetings were held 20 times from May 15, 1824 to November 13, 1825, and included famous writers, artists and scholars such as Toku Takizawa (pseudonym: Bakin Kyokutei), a popular novelist; Yoshishige Yamazaki, a medicine merchant and essayist; Hirokata Yashiro, a low-level retainer of the shogun and expert in Japanese studies; and Buncho Tani, a painter. There was an incident in which Takizawa and Yamazaki had a quarrel during a meeting and broke off their relations. It can be said that they enjoyed the world of antiquarianism with the highly-charged clash of personalities. Some might remember the records of meetings, Tanki Manroku <NDL Call No.: わ210.02-2> which were displayed in an exhibition, Rare books of the National Diet Library – The 60th anniversary (http://www.ndl.go.jp/exhibit60/e/index.html), held in 2008.

About 100 years after the Tankikai, the Shin-Tankikai (means "new Tankikai") patterned after the Tankikai was held 12 times from May 1928 through May 1936. The participants included Suikei Kaga, a businessman; Chikusei Mimura, a bamboo dealer; Wakaki Hayashi, a book collector; Senshu Kimura, a paperhanger; and Roan Uchida, a translator and novelist. They "drew pictures, made rubbings and never stopped talking" in the first meeting (Chikusei Mimura, Fushu sodo nichireki, owned by Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda University). Shin Tankikai kiroku, which is taken up in this article, is a transcription by one of the members, Jien Nukui (1878-1948), of the original records of the first meeting through the fourth owned by Senshu Kimura.

The recorded objects, that is, items shown at the meeting, are as follows: an old stamp from the early Heian era (794-1185), a paper strip bearing two haiku autographed by Buson Yosa, a senryobako (an Edo-period coin chest capable of holding a thousand pieces of gold), a cigar used by Tsugunosuke Kawai, a Hawaiian scoop, a carnival mask from Manila, and others. Though we will never know whether these were genuine or not, they cover a wide range of items, eastern and western, cultured and ordinary.

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Photo 1: Back of the 11th page and face of the 12th page of the third volume (right: "Yanagawa Seigan iai no bokuto (wooden sword of Seigan Yanagawa)", left: "Nakamura Masanao shi cho Jijoron bangi (printing block of Jijoron by Masanao Nakamura)")

Photo 1 (right) is drawings and rubbings of a wooden sword which is said to have been a favorite of Seigan Yanagawa, a composer of Chinese poems in the late years of the Edo period. Photo 1 (left) is a page from Masanao Nakamura, Saigoku risshi hen, also known as Jijoron (a Japanese translation of Samuel Smile's Self-help). There is written, "printing block of Jijoron by Masanao Nakamura" on the latter, and it seems that this page was printed using the printing block shown at the meeting.

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Photo 2: Face of the first page of the fourth volume
Stamps and their impressions of Morohira Kano, Sekiyo Furuya and Tomokiyo Oyamada
owned by Chikusei Mimura.
Chikusei's diary, Fushu sodo nichireki, says "contributed three stamps in a small package."

Photo 2 is drawings and impressions of stamps of three persons including Tomokiyo Oyamada, a scholar of the Edo period. These stamps were actually used to make the impressions.

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Photo 3:"Asakusa Bunko haishaku no sho (certificate for borrowing from Asakusa Bunko)"
The collection of Asakusa Bunko was inherited and is currently held by the National
Archives of Japan, Tokyo National Museum, etc.

A slip named "Shoseki haishaku no sho (certificate for borrowing a book)" of Asakusa Bunko, a library of the early Meiji era (1868-1912), is also attached (photo 3). It may have been distributed to participants at the meeting.

Such drawings and attachments also appear in a complete set of volumes previously owned by Suikei Kaga (presently owned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Library), and it seems illustrations in the volumes previously owned by Kaga are more accurate; but as Masahiro Koide says, the volumes held by the National Diet Library are unique in that three real items shown at the meeting are attached. They are a doll; a sacred twisted rope used in Shinto purification ceremonies, owned by Mihara, a relative of Mochifumi Yamada, a scholar of Japanese classics of the Edo period; and a particularly interesting item, a replica of an eboshi, the traditional formal men's headwear (Photo 4).

Photo 4: Attached "Ko-eboshi (old eboshi)" (left, 27.5 x 24.0 cm) and the case (right)
Full-size folding drawing is also included in the fourth volume. For other goods relating to
Tankikai, "Kyokutei Bakin Tankikai tochu mangin shotei (poem by Bakin Kyokutei presented
during the Tankikai)" was also contributed.

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On the case, it is written, "Ko-eboshi, made with black paper, owned by the family of Miyajima in the domain of Koga, Entoku era (1489-1492)" and "replicated by Teikan at the New Year of 1766," and stamped "Treasured by Teikan To" and "Mubutsusai (pseudonym of Teikan)", which indicate it was replicated by Teikan To (1732-1797) who was engaged in archaeological research in the middle of the Edo period. While the fact alone is interesting enough, a drawing of the ko-eboshi contributed by Yoshishige Yamazaki also appears in Tanki Manroku, in which it is written, "owned by the family of Miyajima in the domain of Koga, Entoku era" (Photo 5).

Photo 5: Face of 14th page of the 5th series in the second volume of Tanki Manroku
In Kokon Yoran ko mainly compiled by Hirokata Yashiro who participated in the Tankikai,
there is an illustration with a commentary, "a replica of one eboshi among twelve kinds of the
Entoku era" in the category of "tate eboshi (tall eboshi)," "ori eboshi (folded eboshi)," "nage
eboshi (thrown eboshi)," etc.

Tanki Manroku has no record proving that it was previously owned by Teikan To, so it cannot be said that the eboshi shown at the Tankikai meeting was exactly the same one as the other shown at the Shin-Tankikai meeting. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see the twist of fate around the ko-eboshi, having the same item at the roots, presented at the Shin-Tankikai patterned after the Tankikai.

It gives us the feeling that the world of the late Edo literati has been handed down to later dilettantes over the ages.

Shin Tankikai Kiroku – a pictorial record of antiquarianism, 4 vol. 29.7 x 20.0cm NDL call no.: 本別13-1
(Note: The above material and material in Photo 5 are provided in microfiche.)

• Reference:
  • Takashi Ibi, Edo no bunjin saron, Yoshikawa kobunkan, 2009
  • Masahiro Koide, et al., Shin Tankikai Zuroku, Yoshikawa kobunkan, 1998
  • Masahiro Koide, "Zuidoku zuiki: Nukui ginjiro san no botsunen" Nihon Kosho Tsushin, 834, January 1999; Id., "Shin Tankikai zuroku yogen" Nihon Kosho Tsushin, 842, September 1999

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