Tadashi Kobayashi, 'Teach Me, Professor Kobachu! A Super Introduction to Ukiyo-e' (Shogakukan, 2020)

The author is a leading expert in Edo period painting research who has served as the director of the Okada Museum of Art and in other prominent roles. While he is an authority in the field, this book is written in a very relaxed, conversational tone, making it feel as if you are listening to a gallery talk at a museum.

This book focuses on artists active during the Edo period, such as Hishikawa Moronobu, Suzuki Harunobu, Kitagawa Utamaro, Toshusai Sharaku, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige, and Utagawa Kuniyoshi.
Personally, I found the story of how Harunobu became a hit during the Tanuma era (the so-called bubble period of the Edo era) to be very interesting (pp. 45-57). He was a pioneer of nishiki-e (polychrome ukiyo-e prints) and lived during the 'bubble' era when Tanuma Okitsugu rose to power. During that time, Harunobu's lavish prints sold for eight times the price of other ukiyo-e (160 mon / estimated by the author to be around 3,200 yen). This was not just due to the economic background, but also because of the cuteness of the characters Harunobu drew, and the fact that he 'expressed the daily customs of ordinary people so beautifully, or perhaps poetically' (p. 51).

Harunobu passed away suddenly just five years after his breakthrough with nishiki-e, and after that, Torii Kiyonaga began to take the world by storm.
While Kiyonaga inherited Harunobu's style, he began to draw beauties with eight-head proportions that differed from Harunobu's. The author also points out that Kiyonaga's deep interest in light is one of his defining characteristics (p. 27).

Regarding this point, the author interprets the high level of public interest in the West, and while it is an introductory book, one can also feel the perspective of a researcher.

Also, regarding the famous Utagawa Hiroshige print 'Kambara: Night Snow' from 'The Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō' (1834), the author makes an interesting association. He suggests that the Kambara on the Tōkaidō is, of course, in Shizuoka, but perhaps it does not depict that location, but rather the scenery of Kambara District in Echigo Province, which corresponds to the current north-central part of Niigata Prefecture. The author imagines that he might have intentionally depicted a different 'Kambara' as 'a comfort for the workers from Echigo who had come to work in Edo' (p. 101).

Why Hiroshige depicted a snowy landscape in Shizuoka's Kambara (which is usually impossible) is a mystery that is often discussed, but the idea that he intentionally depicted the scenery of Niigata by using a different Kambara... I don't know the credibility of this as an academic theory, but I thought it was a very interesting theory that makes one feel the 'freedom' of ukiyo-e.

Without acting overly pretentious or turning ukiyo-e into something authoritative, the author's eye for viewing the works remains calm, and his tone is very joyful. Perhaps the townspeople of Edo interacted with ukiyo-e in this same way; it was an introductory book that made me feel the author's personal affection for ukiyo-e.