Eight Dogs, or "Hakkenden": Part One—An Ill-Considered Jest by Kyokutei Bakin (review)

Abstract

with curiosity and praise reserved exclusively for the former” (p. 194). Goree notes that we can see this imperial preference in several scenes, including an unimpressive daimyo procession traveling to Edo, which appears “modest compared with the elaborate parades associated with the imperial court or religious festivals featured elsewhere” (p. 195). Goree also makes a convincing case that the work displays sectarian religious favoritism as well, demonstrating a consistent “privileging of sites and figures related to Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism” (p. 244). In sum, Printing Landmarks is an outstanding new contribution to the study of early modern Japanese literature, art history, cartography, publishing, and book history. As Goree observes, “Meisho zue have long been regarded as a distinct print form, but their features have been considered self-evident or undeserving of historical theorization” (p. 258). Many scholars have drawn on the images and textual passages in meisho zue as apparently objective and historically reliable documentary sources, but as Goree so expertly shows, their accuracy is illusory: “We must be on guard against this beguiling power of meisho zue, lest we conclude that life in the Tokugawa era was rosier than it was, especially when using zu and mondan as evidence for making historical claims about specific places” (p. 14). These are indeed words to the wise. Printing Landmarks is a terrific work of scholarship, and it should change how we read, cite, and understand meisho zue for many years to come.