kinpirabon 金平本

Keywords
Art History
Painting

Also written 公平本. The typical early Edo period publication of the *eiri jōruribon 絵入浄瑠璃本. These books contained stories dealing with the superhuman child Kinpira 金平, son of Sakata no Kintoki 坂田金時 (see *Kintarō 金太郎). These had been originated by Sakurai Tanba no Shōjō 桜井丹波少掾 (act. 1655-73), an early Edo period jōruri 浄瑠璃 performer and the originator of kinpirajōruri. Other stories dealt with tales of bravery featuring figures such as Watōnai 和藤内, the hero of Kokusen'ya Kassen 国姓爺合戦, a jōruri written by Chikamatsu Monzaemon 近松門左衛門 (1653-1724) in 1715. The books were synopsis-like in content and consisted of from ten to twenty folded, doubled pages (folios) for each booklet. In between eleven to twelve lines of text written in slender hiragana ひらがな, there would be four or five illustrative pictures. These were relatively simple black and white woodblock printed pictures and were not signed or sealed. The Edo version was printed on *hansetsu 半切 (half-size) mino paper *minogami 美濃紙. There were kamigata 上方 (Kyoto-Osaka) versions which were printed as hanshibon 半紙本, a type of half-sized paper that together with mino paper were the most common sizes used for books. The frank and unrestrained style of the illustrations is thought to have had some influence on the development of Edo *kabuki 歌舞伎 and the resulting actor portrayals *yakusha-e 役者絵 in single-sheet prints *ichimai-e 一枚絵 as well as on *eiri kyōgenbon 絵入狂言本.