Dissertation

Visualizing the classics: Reading surimono and kyōka books as social and cultural history

D.P. Kok defended his thesis on 10 October 2017

Author

D.P. Kok

Date

10 October 2017

Links

Leiden Repository

The research concerns the social and cultural background of the kyoka-poetry craze in the Japanese capital of Edo, around the 1820s. The people who engaged in composing 'mad' kyoka-poetry are often said to be wealthy merchants who had their funny poems printed on expensive surimono prints to impress their aqcaintances. Judging by the level of literary allusions both in the poetry and the imagery, it seems these people actually were rather educated members of society. Reviewing poems and bibliographical information found in surimono and contemporary sources, the structure of these presumably elite social networks is to be unraveled.

Supervisors: prof. M.F.M. Forrer and prof. I.B. Smits