Ushiya Zōdan Aguranabe: Ichimei Doronken (Beef-Shop Small-Talk: Cross-Legged (at a Beef) Pot)

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Ushiya Zōdan Aguranabe: Ichimei Doronken [Beef-Shop Small-Talk:Cross-Legged (at a Beef) Pot]

Kanagaki, Robun [text by]; Ikkeisai [Utagawa], Yoshiiku [illustrated by].

Tōkyō: Wan'ya Kihee, [preface dated Meiji 4 (1871)].

The first two series (of three) of Robun's famous satire on the perceived sophistication of Western customs. In the work, he ridicules characters who argue that the (Western) custom of eating beef introduced to Japan is 'civilised'. Sharalyn Orbaugh (2007) suggests that "[a]lthough nutrition was the basis of the original promotion of beef by educator and statesman Fukuzawa Yukichi, its concurrent power as a metaphor for cultural control of the natural world is apparent in Kanagaki Robun's story Aguranabe (Sitting around the stew pot, 1871)", adding that "Robun is mocking those Japanese who have rushed to embrace the new Western fads, and the speeches of his characters reveal the implicit connections between the meaty contents of the 'stew pot' and the larger implications of modernization". Richard Reitan (2009) furthermore notes that, in Robun's work, "[t]he beefeater, even as he spoke of 'unenlightened boors,' 'savages,' and 'barbaric superstitions,' was himself made to appear foolish. In this way, Robun brings civilized conduct and foolishness together, collapsing the opposition upon which the advocates of civilization relied." A total of three series (in five volumes) were published, with Kawanabe Kyōsai providing the illustrations for the first volume of the third series only. A scarce set of the first and second series from one of Robun's best-known works.

First and second series. Three four-hole-bound (yotsumetoji) volumes, complete, on double leaves, traditional East Asian binding style (fukurotoji). Original wrappers creased, worn, and stained, binding strings cut in places. Occasional small marks and minor thumbing internally. Browning to lower margin of first few leaves of volume one of series two. Minor abrasion to extremities of first few leaves of volume two of second series. Small tears, repaired, to upper pastedown of same volume. 26; [1], 19; 22 leaves. 18.2 x 11.7; 18.5 x 12.5; 18.5 x 12.5 cm.

❧ Orbaugh, Sharalyn. Japanese Fiction of the Allied Occupation: Vision, Embodiment, Identity. Leiden: Brill, 2007.

❧ Reitan, Richard. Making a Moral Society: Ethics and the State in Meiji Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2010.

Ushiya Zōdan Aguranabe: Ichimei Doronken (Beef-Shop Small-Talk: Cross-Legged (at a Beef) Pot)
Price: $1,840.00 (USD)