An Interview with Kunichika, 1898
...his house is located on the (north) side of Higashi Kumagaya-Inari. Although his residence is just a partitioned tenement house, it has an elegant, latticed door, a nameplate and letterbox. Inside, the entry...leads to a room with worn tatami mats upon which a long hibachi has been placed. The space is also adorned with a Buddhist altar. A cluttered desk stands at the back of the miserable two-tatami room; it is hard to believe that the well-known artist Kunichika lives here...Looking around with a piercing gaze and stroking his long white beard, Kunichika talks about the height of prosperity of the Edokko.
"I'm a total eccentric, this is from an old man. I don't know what my grandfather called himself, but he was a carpenter in Yushima. My mother wanted to give us a good upbringing, my father worked and was a lifelong adherent of the Hokke sect. That makes me a mix of Hokke and Ikko. My father's name was Oshima Kuju, he was the owner of a house in Sajikkenbori in the Kyobashi district. My mother was the daughter of a teahouse proprieter. I was born at the Sannjikkenbori house so this makes me a child of the low city area of Kiyobashi. I am embarrassed to discuss this, but my father had a kappa (water demon) tattooed on the back of his thigh pointing upwards towards his backside, he was known as kappa no kuju - he was totally unsuited to to being head of a household but he was a handsome man. My mother as a young woman fell for him at first sight, they set up house together. I was the second son, my older brother is called Chokichi, since my father was called Kuju and my mother was called Oyae, I was given the name Yasohachi and the reason why I was given the name Arakawa Yasohachi is quite odd. I was thirteen or fourteen years old and there was a practice called myoji gomen; my brother was named Oshima, which he didn't like like because it was socially inferior so we decided to take on the name Arakawa from my mother's side of the family. The whole family became known as Arakawa.
At the time my work was selling well, it might sound odd but my work was doing better than my teacher's, so as punishment he took the name 'Kunichika' away from me. There was nothing I could do about it so I took the name 'Ichiosai' but Kunisada went to the publishers' and refused to let them even use this name. Then Shinoda Sengyo (Kazuhiko) stepped in on my behalf and the name 'Kunichika' was reinstated. It was a real blow to me at the time. After that I moved to Otowacho in Nihonbashi, it was a good place and the plants all had the names of the local geisha. There was a house warming party and Kuniteru was noisily scattering decorative paper drawn with images for votive offerings on printed single sheets of mulberry paper. For some reason there were a lot of secret police (okappiki) living in Otowacho and I was indebted to the private detective Mameoto. I had received gifts of clothes and so on so I did the rounds to thank everyone and by the time I got back, everyone had gathered at the house; the big spender Mr Tsuto of Yamashiro riverbank, Kwanabe Kyosai, Ishii Dainoshin, a practitoner of sword play from the Ueno Hirokoji area and Hashimoto Sakuzo of the Sakakibara clan, known today as Yoshu Chikanobu. I had drunk too much and went upstairs to take a nap and had just dozed off when for some reason I heard a noise that woke me up. Kyosai was drunk and had stripped off Tsuto's brown overcoat and painted on it by dunking it in a porcelain bowl full of the kind of ink they use for writing public notices. Tsuto made a face and then Kyosai drew a water sprite in the middle of it. Just like me - sake is no good for Kyosai. Everyone was staring at him and he drew something on Chinese style paper and grunted in satisfaction. Two or three tatami makers racks were lined up in a row in the garden and on them were the new paper sliding doors for the entrance to the second floor; a geisha stood holding the ink whilst Kyosai drew a picture on them. That was all well and good, but then he stamped on the new sliding door and put a gaping hole in it. I can't look upon violence as just a spectator, so I went up to him and said, "Look Kyosai, you're doing a terrible thing here, please stop." But since I said this abruptly, and I was so drunk, Kyosai took the brush and painted my face completely black. The dentist Ishii Dainoshin then said, "because you have such buck teeth Kyosai, maybe I should take them out for you." Then Chikanobu drew his sword and jumped in. Kyosai took off and ran into a hedge, but at this time the Momoji stream had become a gutter. Kyosai fell in and looked like a sewer rat and there was me - my face painted black - so I laughed at him. Afterwards Kyosai came by my place and in our own way, we made up. Kyosai should at least be admired for that. But because Chikanobu drew his sword, that was too much, Kyosai broke off his relationship with him.
With grateful thanks to Amy Reigle Newland for permission to reproduce her translation of this interview.