午夜剧场

If this book sells well, Maruyama Okyo may be the primary contributor, but the second must be the designer Yasuhiro Shimauchi, who conceived the cover. Initially, after discussions with the publisher and editor, we decided to use a scene of three puppies painted by Okyo playing together, and Mr. Shimauchi created a design accordingly. However, the cover of the book itself that came out at the same time was an extreme close-up of a single puppy's head. I was amazed by Mr. Shimauchi's perspective. The book cover is only visible if you remove the dust jacket, and it is printed in a single color. There is a possibility that readers might never see it. We agreed that would be a waste and decided to use that design for the color dust jacket, resulting in the design you see now. It seems to be displayed face-out in bookstores everywhere, radiating charm.

This is a book on art history that looks at how paintings of puppies introduced from China and Korea developed in Japan. It took five years of planning with the editor to select 116 pieces. In contrast to the puppies of the Kano school or Ito Jakuchu, which were heavily influenced by Chinese and Korean styles, it was Okyo—a painter of reality in the mid-Edo period—who revolutionized the style by "painting them to look like the real thing." His influence on his surroundings and future generations was immense. It was the editor's idea to gather as many of Okyo's paintings as possible under the title "19 Selections of Okyo's Dogs" to further emphasize their importance.

There is an Edo-period book stating that Soga Shohaku, a contemporary painter known for his eccentricity, despised Okyo's paintings as being "diagrams" rather than "art." Even today, with the advancement of art history research, some people still find Okyo's paintings—which lack any sense of murkiness—to be cold or superficial. Okyo, who calmly captured the shapes of objects and avoided infusing his brushstrokes with emotion, essentially distanced himself from his subjects to express a clear beauty. However, puppies are different. The painting method is complex, carefully layering thin ink and pigments with lively brushstrokes. Most eloquent of all are the eyes. He represents the shape with light brown, and while letting the ink bleed over it, he dots the eyelids and pupils. The puppies born this way have almost human-like expressions, sometimes timid, sometimes mischievous, and full of "heart." Looking closely at the cover of this book, I feel a sense of joy realizing that Okyo had such a rich, human repertoire.

Nobuhisa Kaneko

Kodansha

192 pages, 2,860 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.