The Boy Who Drew Cats
"The Boy Who Drew Cats" (Japanese: 猫を描いた少年, Hepburn: Neko wo egaita shōnen) is a Japanese fairy tale translated by Lafcadio Hearn, published in 1898, as number 23 of Hasegawa Takejirō's Japanese Fairy Tale Series.[1][2] It was later included in Hearn's Japanese Fairy Tales.[3]
The original title in Hearn's manuscript was "The Artist of Cats".[1] Printing it on plain paper as in the rest of the series did not meet with Hearn's approval, and this book became the first of a five-volume set by Hearn printed on crepe paper.[1] Illustrations were by the artist Suzuki Kason.[a][1]
Origin
[edit]This tale was known from Tohoku to Chugoku and Shikoku regions under the title Eneko to Nezumi (絵猫と鼠, "The Picture-Cats and the Rat").[5] Some commentators trace the tale to the 15th century legends around Sesshū.[6]
It has been suggested that Lafcadio Hearn's version is a retelling, and has no original Japanese story which is an "exact counterpart".[7] Thus "in his English edition, Lafcadio Hearn retold it with a thrilling ghostly touch. In the original story, the acolyte becomes the abbot of the temple after the incident, but in Hearn's version, he goes on to be a renowned artist".[b][4]
Analyses
[edit]The legends surrounding the eminent inkbrush artist priest Sesshū as a young acolyte has been compared to this folktale,[8] and it has been suggested the tale may derive from the legends around young Sesshū.[6]
Hearn stipulated that he would not contribute a story unless it would be "prettily illustrated" in publication,[9] and even though the choice of artist was not the author/translator's, Kason's drawing catered to the American readers' taste for the fantastical, as in the example of the illustration showing the dead giant rat-ghoul.[10]
The tale is displayed as the second of 51 tales in the 1960 book, All Cats go to Heaven.
Explanatory notes
[edit]References
[edit]- Citations
- ^ a b c d Sharf (1994), pp. 46, 63
- ^ Hearn (1898).
- ^ Hearn (1918), pp. 29–35.
- ^ a b "The Boy Who Drew Cats". Kyoto University of Foreign Studies Rare Books Exhibition. 2007. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
- ^ Kang, Jihyun (康 志賢) (2006). 浮世絵に見る『東海道中膝栗毛』滑稽の旅 (特集 旅). Nihon Ukiyoe Kyōkai. Ukiyo-e Art: A Journal of the Japan Ukiyo-e Society (in Japanese). 151–152: 23.
- ^ a b "Library Publishes Facsimile of Japanese Tale, Lafcadio Hearn's The Boy Who Drew Cats". Library of Congress Information Bulletin. 46 (48): 509. 1987.
- ^ Guth (2008), p. 271, n22.
- ^ Van Briessen, Fritz (1964) [1962]. The Way of the Brush: Painting Techniques of China and Japan. Tuttle. pp. 29–35.
- ^ Ichikawa, Sanki (1925). Some New Letters and Writings of Lafcadio Hearn. Kenkyusha. p. 320. Cited by Guth (2008), p. 274.
- ^ Guth (2008), p. 274.
- Bibliography
- Hearn, Lafcadio (1898). The Boy who Drew Cats. Japanese fairy tale series 23. Suzuki Kason (illustr.). Tokyo: T. Hasegawa.
- —— (1918). "The Boy who Drew Cats". Japanese Fairy Tales. New York: Boni and Liveright. pp. 29–35.
- Guth, Christine M. E. (Spring–Autumn 2008). "Hasegawa's Fairy Tales: Toying with Japan". RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics. 53–54 (53/54). The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology: 266–281. doi:10.1086/RESvn1ms25608821. JSTOR 2560882. S2CID 164285608.
- Sharf, Frederic Alan (1994). "drew+cats" "Takejiro Hasegawa: Meiji Japan's Preeminent Publisher of Wood-block-illustrated Crepe-paper Books". Peabody Essex Museum Collections. Peabody Essex Museum: 46, 63. ISSN 1074-0457.
External links
[edit]- Audio recording of "The Boy Who Drew Cats" - Downloadable and streaming audio formats.
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