The Voyage of Prince Fuji

Last week I mentioned that the Kuniyoshi exhibition had reminded me of a book I loved as a child, The Voyage of Prince Fuji by Jenny Thorne. It's long been out of print, and there's no information about it online, so I promised to do a post about the book, with some pictures from it, and here it is. (Click to embiggen pictures, and I recommend clicking on the links for more images)

Prince Fuji is a nobleman from Cipango; called up to war against Cathay, he loses his ship's crew in a violent storm on his way home and has to find his way by himself. Meanwhile, back at home his wife is being courted by three gold-digging opportunists, all of whom she refuses to consider until she has finished the great tapestry that she started to pass the time whilst her husband was away.

The story of the prince's adventures is presented in comic strip format by this tapestry, with the story of the princess and her suitors running concurrently at the bottom of the page. This clever technique totally enchanted me as a child, and even as an adult with more knowledge of book craft, it's still brilliant. There's a wonderful use of panel borders, such as using the rooms of a building to frame the action, or shaping the panel to match the direction of an arrow.

Another great touch is the little fragments of the prince's adventures that go sneaking out of the frames from time to time, like this panel with the fly-swatter:

There's also a lovely mixture of art styles to represent the different places that the prince finds himself in, from the miniature-style painting in India to lush jungles painted in the style of Rousseau. (click to embiggen)

Although none of the panel illustrations directly copy anything by Kuniyoshi, there's definitely a similar use of colour and composition, at least in the Japanese locations, although it's not as subtle as his. The great battle scene certainly reminded me of similar scenes in the Kuniyoshi exhibition, although it obviously owes a great debt to medieval tapestry and the likes of Brueghel (although this isn't such a departure, as Kuniyoshi was known to be influenced by him, too). Thorne's fabric designs are much more simplified but she obviously had fun doing them, as evidenced by the fact that the princess wears sixteen different outfits — practically one for every single double-spread.

In contrast, her suitors wear the same outfit throughout the book, even though enough time has obviously passed that they would surely be able to change into different clothes. I'd never actually noticed this before I started looking through the book again to write this post, but it has a very subtle effect on the story, reinforcing the idea that they are gold-diggers (it's never explicitly mentioned, but it was pretty obvious even when I was a child). The colours of each of the princess's outfits also subtly reinforce the events of the story, as they always match the colours of each tapestry section — something else I'd never noticed before.

As I said, this book has been out of print for a while, although you can find copies of it for sale online. Alibris has a some copies, and so does abebooks, and some copies are only a fiver! (Although prices seem to vary wildly for no apparent reason)

See more images of the book here.