16 AMAM.OBERLIN.EDU INLAND FISHING The diet in the Edo period was primarily plant-based. Much of the protein, particulary in rural areas, came frombeans, grains, and, to a lesser extent, fish and other seafood. In many inland rural areas the only fish available was dried, preserved or fermented—brought in from the coasts. In areas with access to lakes or rivers, however, freshwater fish was a welcome treat. Utagawa Kuniyoshi 歌川国芳 (Japanese, 1797–1861) PoembyGonchūnagonSadayori, no. 64 fromthe series TheOneHundredPoets, OnePoemEachs, early 1840s Color woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper MaryA. AinsworthBequest, 1950.518 A fisherman sits on a fishing weir, or yana 梁, using a reed mat as a simple net to catch small fish that have been channeled into a fish trap, or eri 魞, made with a fence of closely spaced logs. This is another print fromKuniyoshi’s illustrations of the poetry anthology Hyakunin Isshu, the “One Hundred Poets, One PoemEach,” seen earlier. The poem is translated above. To an Edo-period viewer, the association of this refined, classical poemwith an image of an ordinary country fisherman would have been an amusing pairing known as mitate-e 見立絵. The term literally means “look-andcompare pictures,” referring to a visual analogy where contemporary scenes or figures are depicted in ways that allude to classical literature, historical events, or traditional themes. This artistic approach created a playful intellectual dialogue between the artist and the viewer, who needed cultural knowledge to fully appreciate the layeredmeanings and references. As the winter dawn breaks, the Uji River mist thins in patches and revealed, here and there, are all the shallows’ fishing stakes. —Fujiwara no Sadayori 藤原定頼 (995–1045) —Translation by Joshua S. Mostow, Pictures of the Heart: The Hyakunin Isshu inWord and Image (2023)
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