Tokyo nichinichi shinbun Story in briefStory forthcoming. Rare example of revised editionThere are two versions of this print. The drawings are the same, but one print shows the name "Kobayashi" in a cartouche by the man's shoulder, while the other has no name cartouche. The texts are also different. The text on the print with the name cartouche gives both Kobayashi's name and the name of his deceased brother-in-law, Saito, whose ghost we see in the background -- and indeed, the story on this print is little more than a ghost story. The text of the revised story gives a more moving account without mentioning any names. This is a very rare example of a revision in a news nishikie picture and story. Tsuchiya, in "Nishikie shinbun to wa nani ka" [What is nishikie news?] in Nyuusu no tanjo [The birth of news] (Kinoshita and Yoshimi 1999), surmises that the edition without the names, with the beautified story, was probably the revised edition. She also surmises that the revisions were probably in response to some sort of pressure. (Tsuchiya 1999:127) Original edition"It's not over until it's over," as Yogi Berra said. He was talking about baseball, not war. War is never over. Two days after the report of all the flag waving comes a report that a man named Kobayashi became depressed after hearing that Saito, a younger brother-in-law who had gone to Taiwan with Saigo Tsugumichi's army, had died in the barbarian land (banchi) from an illness. For days Kobayashi was haunted by visions of Saito's ghost. (WW) Revised editionVestiges of where there had been a cartouche, on this version which has no cartouche, make it rather obvious which version came first. |
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