Kwanko Maru
Kwanko Maru, the name of the ship, reflects the "w-glide" that differentiated "ka/ga" and "kwa/gwa" Sino-Japanese terms. Today, "kwa/gwa" terms are generally pronounced and written "ka/ga" but present-day kana orthography still accommodates w-glides, and w-glides continue to characterize the romanizations of a few words and organizational names.
Of interest here is whether the name of the ship was "Kwanko Maru" at the time of the incident, or whether the story writer is using the name of the ship that may have been given the name later that year.
According to Nagasawa Fumio's Natsukashii Nihon no kisen (なつかしい日本の汽船) <Nostalgic Japanese Steamships, Fumio Nagasawa>, the Kwanko Maru, with a displacement of 185 gross tons, was built in London in 1869 and sold to Tsushima province in 1870, at which point it was known as the Sakana. The following year it was transferred to the Japanese government, then in April 1877 -- during the Seinan War -- it was sold to the Mitsubishi Mail Steamship Company, after which it was renamed Kwanko Maru. The vessel was struck from the register of ships in 1918, nearly half a century after it was built. It spent the last two decades of its life under the ownership of a series of owners based in Hakodate.
Nagasawa's data base shows the following history.
Nagasawa Nagasawa Fumio's "Natsukashii Nihon no kisen" (なつかしい日本の汽船) (Nostalgic Japanese Steamships, Fumio Nagasawa) shows the following history of the Kwanko Maru, according to which the ship was built as the "Sakana" in London in 1869, renamed "Kwanko Maru" sometime after it was sold to the Mitsubishi Steamship Company in April 1977, and struck from the register of ships in 1918.
貫効丸 KWANKO MARU (1869)
496/HDGJ 185G/T 進水 1869(明2)
Lpp 41.70 B 6.25 D 5.12 m 66/150PS 9.5kt
Henderson Coublorn & Co.,Renfrew建造 E. M. De Bussche,London
SAKANA
1870(明3)対馬藩に売却
1871(明4)日本政府に移管
1877.4(明10)郵便汽船三菱(東京)に売却後、貫効丸 KWANKO MARU と改名(時期不詳)
1885.10.1(明18)日本郵船(東京)に移籍
1898.9.12(明31)酒沢岸太郎(函館)に売却
1908(明41)相馬市作(函館)に売却
1912(明45)讃岐新吉(函館)に売却
1918(大7)船名録から削除
Other lists classify the ship as "kihan" (機帆) or "mechanized (motorized) sail" boat, as it is depicted on Toshinobu's Chōya shinbun print.
Toshinobu
As his name suggests, the drawer, Toshinobu (年信 1857-1886), was a student of Yoshitoshi (芳年). As noted in the publishing particulars shown in the lower right margin, was legally Yamazaki Tokusaburō (山崎徳三郎).
Toshinobu was 13 when he began to study under Yoshitoshi and 20 or 21 in 1878 when he drew the prints in the Chōya shinbun nishikie series. The Seinan War, which took place the year before, inspired numerous prints, including about 30 by Toshinobu. depicting scenes from the war.
At the time, Toshinobu was also working as an illustrator for Chōya shinbun, the name sake of the nishikie series. The prints were numbered according to the issues of the papers from which their stories were adopted, but they came out several months later, and in random order, and were probably independently published as souvenirs.
Though regarded as one of Yoshitoshi's most promising students, from about 1880 Toshinobu and Yoshitoshi had a falling out, partly over Toshinobu's drinking and carousing. Attempts by a third party to mend the relationship ultimately failed, as Toshinobu continued to be unstable. He reportedly even walked off with some of Yoshitoshi's manga sketches, and apparently a wanted notice was published in a newspaper under Yoshitoshi's name.
Toshinobu was only 28 or 29 when he died of pneumonia and meningitis in 1886.
Print information
Series: Chōya shinbun
Number: 1353b
Date: Meiji 11-3-18 (1878-3-18) (otodoke)
Publisher: Hayashi Kichizō (林吉蔵)
Drawer: Yamazaki Toshinobu (Yamazaki Tokusaburō)
Carver: Unstated
Writer: Unstated
Size: Oban
Image: Yosha Bunko