Instructive Reference-Index of All Sorts of Proverbs

Part I

(Tatoe-gusa oshie hayabiki, 譬諭草をしえ早引)

Publisher: Arita-ya Seiemon

1843

 

This series of prints shows beautiful women representing proverbs.  Instead of being numbered, the small black square in the right upper corner of each print contains a hiragana character that may be ordered in the same manner as the alphabet.  Next to the hiragana is a kanji related to the image.  Each print bears a poem by Ryűkatei Tanekazu (柳下亭種員).  This series is listed as number 100 in Kuniyoshi by Basil William Robinson (Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1961).  The prints are each about 14 by 10 inches (36 by 25 centimeters), a size known as ôban.  I am grateful to Robert Pryor for assisting with this series.

 

Kuniyoshi - Instructive Reference-Index of all Sorts of Proverbs (Tatoe-gusa oshie hayabiki), 'I', Remain straight as a bamboo, 1843-8, pub

 

Proverb: Remain straight as a bamboo

Description: Young woman with bow and target on ground

Hiragana: I (), No 1

Kanji: (archery)

 

 

 

Another state without any green

 

Another state with plain foreground

 

Proverb:

Description: Beauty looking down at a brazier

Hiragana: Ro (), No. 2

Kanji: (stove)

 

Another state with green foreground

 

Another state with plain foreground

 

Proverb:

Description: Beauty seated by a dressing table blackening her teeth

Hiragana: Ha (), No. 3

Kanji: (teeth)

 

NOTE: The blackening of teeth was practiced during the Edo period and is called ohaguro (お歯黒).

 

Another state with a plain foreground and a grey band on top

 

Another state with a plain foreground and a purple band on top

Proverb: Money can multiply and build up over time, but what is much more precious is the purity and brightness of one’s heart

Description: Young woman holding a wedding kimono

Text in cartouche: A Chinese sage says that honest, well-behaved people comprise the nation’s treasure.  When a woman marries, her dowries, however plenty, are just superficial things.  What she should practice for life is serve to her parents-in-law and loyalty to her husband.

Hiragana: Ni (), No. 4

Kanji: (responsibility)

 

Translation courtesy of Peter Rourke

 

Another state with a blue band on top and no seals after the names of the artist and poet

 

Another state with a plain foreground and a black band on top

 

Kuniyoshi - Instructive Reference-Index of all Sorts of Proverbs (Tatoe-gusa oshie hayabiki), No

 

Proverb:

Description: Beauty standing by a sickle and a bundle of a dried crop

Hiragana: Ho (), No. 5

Kanji: (ear of rice)

 

Another state of the above design

 

Proverb:

Description: A diving girl (ama) tying back her hair seated on a rocky outcrop on the seashore

Hiragana: He (), No. 6

Kanji: (seashore)

Kuniyoshi - Instructive Reference-Index of all Sorts of Proverbs (Tatoe-gusa oshie hayabiki), No

 

Proverb:

Description: Mother grooming child’s hair

Hiragana: To (), No. 7

Kanji: (whetstone)

 

Another state without purple

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