Yubin hochi shinbun (YHS) nishikie gallery

Known Yubin hochi shinbun (YHS) prints

A number of general, partly public collections include from a few to quite a few prints in what I am calling YHS (Yubin hochi shinbun) series of news nishikie published in 1875 and 1876. A catalog of the Japan Newspaper Museum in Yokohama (Nihon Shinbun Hakubutsukan), aka Newspark, lists 18 YHS prints (Newspark 2001:2-21/2-22). Kanbara Bunko at Kagawa University, Nishigaki Bunko at Waseda University, and the Ono Collection at Tokyo University, as well as the National Diet Library, all have extensive partial collections.

Van den Ing and Schaap 1992, following Keyes 1982, lists 60 prints in this series -- including YHS-645, which is not listed in Tsuchia 1995 -- and YHS-1055, a misnumbering of YHS-1155, which Keyes similarly misnumbers. At least six issues are misnumbered.

Tsuchiya 1995 (viii-ix) lists 61 -- including the promotional flyer (YHS-0), and YHS-1127, neither of which is listed in Keyes or van den Ing and Schaap -- and an unnumbered black triptych, which I am calling YHS-9001, following Tsuchiya 2000.

Van den Ing and Schaap 1992 (pages 113-114), essentially following Keyes 1982 (pages 402-407), lists 60 YHS prints, while Tsuchiya 1995 (pages viii-ix) lists 61. However, the two lists together account for 63 prints -- since van den Ing and Schaap 1992 includes two prints not in Tsuchiya 1995 (YHS-645 and YHS-1055), while Tsuchiya 1995 includes two prints in neither Keyes nor van den Ing and Schaap (YHS-0 and YHS-1127). Note, however, that YHS-1055, as listed in Keyes 1982, and as listed and shown in van den Ing and Schaap 1992, is a misnumbering of YHS-1155.

Tsuchiya 2000 (Bunsei Shoin CD-ROM) includes a text file consisting of a table which lists all prints known to the compilers, and attributes the source of all prints shown on the disk, while also indicating the few prints for which an image could not be obtained (for unstated reasons). This table (pages 5-7) lists 62 YHS prints -- including YHS-645 (which is numbered and shown), YHS-832 (which is numbered but not shown), and YHS-1155 (which is neither numbered nor shown). Curiously, YHS-614b is not on the list, and there is image of the print on the disk, but the database numbering scheme allows for its existence.

Chiba 2008 (pages 204-205) also lists 62 prints -- the same number, but not the same prints, as Tsuchiya 2000. This comes about because Chiba 2008 omits YHS-832 and YHS-1155, but includes YHS-614b and a print it calls YHS-1272.

Chiba City Museum of Art (CCMA), when mounting the 2008 exhibition for which it compiled and published Chiba 2008, claimed to have "discovered" YHS-614b and YHS-1272 -- because, it says, they were not on the Bunsei Shoin CD-ROM. But YHS-614b is listed in Tsuchiya 1995, and the table on the CD-ROM lists YHS-614a (not YHS-614) as though to allow for YHS-614b. And the print associated with issue 1272 of Yubin Hochi Shinbun is merely a flyer, not a news nishikie, and as such it is totally unrelated to the YHS news nishikie series -- hence not listed, shown, or otherwise mentioned by Tsuchiya.

In the meantime, CCMA, while comparing its list against the contents of the CD-ROM, apparently examined only the list shown in its image database, and overlooked the text file list. And apparently they ignored Tsuchiya 1995, among other Japanese sources, much less important foreign-language sources like Keyes 1982 and van den Ing and Schaap 1992.

Images

All 63 known YHS prints -- namely, all the YHS prints listed on Tsuchiya 2000 plus YHS-614b -- are included in the following gallery. The variations of YHS-649, first reported on this website, are not separately listed. This gallery does not show the unrelated Hochi 1272 flyer, for which see (see Fukagawa Nakamichi no ba.

Yosha Bunko has all but 6 of the 63 prints in the YHS series. In the following list, the images of the prints are linked to either (1) an illustrated article about the print (green ground), or (2) a larger display of the image of the print (gray ground).

Most Yosha Bunko bunko prints have been scanned as "jpg" (50, 72, 96, 150, and 300 dpi) and "tif" (300 dpi) images. However, most images shown on this website are of the lowest resolution (50 dpi) for information purposes only. Only a few prints have been shown at higher resolutions to facilitate commentary on graphic detail or the text of a story.

William Wetherall