Exercises in Biography: The Case of Takebe Ayatari

Abstract

Takebe Ayatari's J?SU^S poetry and prose are as delightful to read as his drawings and paintings are to contemplate. Since Lawrence Marceau's book contains generous translations and is lavishly illustrated, we have every reason to be grateful to him for this comprehensive study of Ayatari's life and works. The book offers the reader ample opportunity to acquaint himor herself with a versatile genius, an artist of many talents and, at the same time, a most intriguing human being. It is not a book, I fear, that one can praise for meth odological or theoretical rigor, or for the logical consistency of its argument, but if one reads it for the information it provides about Ayatari (1719-1774), it is a rich book indeed. The story of Ayatari the poet is told in chapters 2 to 5, in which Marceau follows Ayatari from 1738, when he left his hometown, Hirosaki 3/^tu, until his death in Edo in 1774. In chapter 6, devoted to Ayatari the painter, Marceau dis cusses Ayatari's paintings and haiga #H. Youth, family, and ancestors?important in Ayatari's case, because he was related to the two renowned military theorists YamagaSok? 0jffi3Rfr (1622-1685) and Daid?ji Y?zan*?#?0j (1639-1730) are treated in chapter 1. The book also includes an introduction, conclusion, and two appendices, one of which is a discussion of five extant portraits of Ayatari and the other a useful chronology, nenpu-style, of Ayatari's life. As Marceau makes abundantly clear, Ayatari led an eventful life. In his twentieth year (kazoedoshi) he was cut off by his family, banished from his domain, and cast adrift into the world without a penny to his name. For the sec ond son of one of the highest-ranking samurai families of the Hirosaki domain, who could with some confidence have expected an honorable appointment and