Artist's commentary
Nansou Satomi Eight Dog Chronicles
The "Nansou Satomi Eight Dog Chronicles" consists of nine sokan (volumes), ninety-eight scrolls, and one-hundred and six serials. Published over twenty-eight years, this grand epic took Kyokutei Bakin nearly half his life to complete. Kabuki and joururi productions have been a fixture of Japanese theater going all the way back to the Edo period, and its influences on various works across countless genres cannot be overstated.
Bakin served as a page until he decided to set out on his own path at a young age, during which he wrote the following haiku:
"Chilled by winter winds
I have made a decision
To journey with gods"
While certainly an arrogant haiku in that it compares Bakin to the gods who gather in Izumo during Kannazuki, the tenth month of the lunar calendar, one could make a strong argument that the "Eight Dog Chronicles" is itself the journey Bakin decided to undertake.