Yoshitoshi's 'Specialties of Restaurants in the Imperial City' (1878)

Introduction

The title is given a wide range of translations, depending on how literal - and discreet - the translator wishes to be; in the original Japanese it seems to have a number of potential double meanings which are difficult to capture in English. kaiseki means 'meeting place', 'party', 'restaurant dinner', etc.; beppin is a somewhat vulgar word meaning 'beautiful woman'; and kurabe means 'competition' or 'auction'. So one plausible translation is 'Competition between beautiful women at restaurants'.

The characters for Kōto, 'Imperial city', in the title cartouche are written horizontally in small characters above the others; those words are therefore sometimes left out of the title given for this series.

Note that Japanese at that point in time was generally written in vertical columns, running from right to left; a horizontal arrangement was used only where the text had to fit into a limited space. In such horizontal writing, the characters ran from right to left, since it was a special case of the normal vertical writing, one in which each column contains only a single character. Only after World War II did the left-to-right horizontal form common in Western languages become widespread in Japan.

The title of each individual print are on the sides of the cartouche which holds the series title; the location is given at the bottom right, and the establishment at the bottom left.

The series dates from toward the end of Yoshitoshi's career, when he was about thirty-nine. It thus dates from only about seven years before his well-known masterpieces such as his great series "One Hundred Aspects of the Moon" (1885-1892), and "New Forms of Thirty-Six Ghosts" (often called simply "Thirty-Six Ghosts") (1889-1892).

The prints in this series are collaborations between Yoshitoshi and various of his students, including:

• Utagawa Toshimasa (fl. ca. mid-1890s)
• Yamazaki Toshinobu (1857-1886)
• Arai Toshiyuki (1863-1941)

Technical details

• Dates: 4/1878
• Size: Ōban
• Signed: Ōju Yoshitoshi
• Seals: Taiso
• Publishers: Kobayashi Tetsujirō
• Block carvers: Hori Koei

Previous cataloguings

	Roger. S. Keyes, "Courage and Silence: A Study of the Life and
		Color Woodblock Prints of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 1839-1892",
		Cinncinnati, 1982

Keyes listed nine prints in this series, but we have found an additional twelve prints, which we have numbered in the order in which they were discovered (approximately).

This page (and list) is not necessarily complete; the series is not well documented, and there may be yet other prints which have not yet come to our attention. If you know of any prints from this series which aren't listed here, or have either i) information about any errors on the page, ii) better images than the ones below, iii) missing information about individual prints (e.g. publisher, exact date), please let us know.

The Prints

If we have a higher-quality image, that image can be viewed by clicking on the "Large Image" link, which gives the size of the image (for the benefit of those on slow links). Sometimes there is more than one, if our best-quality image has issues (e.g. trimmed margins).

Thumbnail	Large image	Number	Date	Collaborator	Title (Kanji)	Title (Rōmaji)	Title (English)	Description
	237KB	#1	4/1878	Toshinobu	大阪町 浪花屋	Ōsaka-chō Namiwa-ya	The Namiwa-ya restaurant in the Ōsaka District
	231KB	#2	4/1878	Attributed to Toshishige	檜物町 壽美屋	Himono-chō Sumi-ya	The Sumi-ya restaurant in the Himono District	In modern Japanese, the placename is often written with the simplified character 桧, instead of the one given here. In modern Japanese, the simplified character 寿 is often used for the first character in the restaurant's name, instead of the one given here
		#3	Possibly 4/1878	Attributed to Toshiyuki	竹川町 花月(亭)	Takegawa-chō Kagetsu	The Kagetsu restaurant in the Takegawa District
		#4	Possibly 4/1878	Attributed to Toshiyuki or Toshishige	柳島 橋本	Yanagi-shima Hashimoto	The Hashimoto restaurant at Yanagi Island
	269KB	#5	Possibly 4/1878	Toshiyuki	木挽町 曽田屋	Kobiki-chō Sōda-ya	The Sōda-ya restaurant in the Kobiki District	Azumaya Kotoshi seeing off the geisha Musashiya Kunisuke. The first character in the restaurant's name is a non-standard form of the character 曾. Some sources give the first character in the restaurant's name as the character 岩, but this is not correct; see the large image.
		#6	Possibly 4/1878	Attributed to Toshimasa	三十間堀 狐 尾張	Sanjūkken-bori Kitsune Owari	The Kitsune Owari restaurant at Sanjūkken Canal	The name of this establishment can be translated as 'The Fox-Tail Restaurant'.
	322KB	#7	4/1878	Possibly Toshiyuki	芝口 伊勢源	Shibakuchi Isegen	The Isegen restaurant at Shibakuchi	Katsura Osen and Otoku of Noshima-ya House.
	233KB	#8	Probably 4/1878	Toshiyuki	南鍋町 伊勢勘	Minami-nabe-chō Isekan	The Isekan restaurant in the Minami-nabe District
		#9	4/1878	Possibly Toshiyuki	㚑岸嶋 丸伊	Reigan-jima Marui	The Marui restaurant at Reigan Island	The first character in the location name is obscure, and not generally used in Japanese; the reading was provided by sources, but may not be correct. The location with that name is usually written with the character 霊 in Japanese.
	257KB	#10	Probably 4/1878	Toshinobu	深川 平清	Fukagawa Hirakiyo	The Hirakiyo restaurant at Fukagawa
	204KB	#11	Probably 4/1878	Attributed to Toshimasa or Toshiyuki	烏森町 昇榮樓	Karasumori-chō Shōeirō	The Shoeirō restaurant in the Karasumori District	In modern Japanese, the simplified character 栄 is often used for the second character in the restaurant's name, instead of the one given here; similarly, 楼 is often used instead of the last character.
	358KB	#12	Possibly 4/1878	Attributed to Toshimasa or Toshinobu	久保町 賣茶亭	Kubo-chō Baicha-tei	The Baicha Restaurant in the Kubo District	In modern Japanese, the simplified character 売 is often used for the first character in the restaurant's name, instead of the one given here.
	231KB	#13	4/1878	Possibly Toshishige or Toshiyuki	元大工町 中安	Motodaiku-machi Nakayasu	The Nakayasu restaurant in the Motodaiku District
	232KB	#14	4/1878	Possibly Toshihisa	淺廣 壽千樓	Asahiro Jusenrō	The Jusenrō restaurant at Asahiro	In modern Japanese, the placename is often written with the simplified characters 浅広, instead of the ones given here. In modern Japanese, the simplified character 寿 is often used for the first character in the restaurant's name, instead of the one given here; similarly, 楼 is often used instead of the last character.
	184KB	#15	4/1878	Attributed to Toshimasa	芝 山内 福住	Shiba sannai Fukuzumi	The Fukuzumi restaurant in the grounds of Shiba Shrine	Some sources read the last character of the restaurant name as the character 佳, but this is not correct; see the large image.
	214KB	#16	Possibly 4/1878	Probably Toshinobu	三好町 魚十	Miyoshi-chō Uojū	The Uojū restaurant in the Miyoshi District
	234KB	#17	4/1878	Unread	築地 隅屋	Tsukiji Sumi-ya	The Sumi-ya restaurant at Tsukiji	The literal meaning of Tsukiji is 'built land', i.e. re-claimed land; the district is where there used to be lowland marshes at the Sumida River delta. During the Tokugawa period, Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first Tokugawa Shogun directed extensive excavations, both of canals, and a moat for the greatly expanded fortifications of Edo castle; the marshes along the river were systematically filled with spoil from these, the land thus newly created being used for housing and waterfront commercial centres.
	226KB	#18	4/1878	Unread	両國 柏屋	Ryōgoku Kashiwa-ya	The Kashiwa-ya restaurant at Ryōgoku	In modern Japanese, the last character in the placename is usually written with the simplified character 国 instead of the one given here.
		#19	1878/4	Possibly Toshiyuki	新富町 躍金樓	Shintomi-chō Yakukinrō	The Yakukinrō restaurant in the Shintomi District
		#20	Possibly 1878/4	Toshinobu	深川 松本	Fukagawa Matsumoto	The Matsumoto restaurant at Fukagawa
		#21	Possibly 1878/4	Toshinobu	新芳町 百尺	Shin-Yoshi-chō Momoseki	The Momoseki restaurant in the New Yoshi District

Acknowledgements