Painted by shogunate official Musashi Sekiju (Nom de plume: Gankao /Gansekikatei, 1766-1860), this artwork is at the apex of crustacean paintings created during the Edo period. Title Okamehatchimoku (Outsider's Better Grasp of the Situation) has another meaning in that the kanji of shellfish is broken down into ‘eye’ and ‘arm’. Daimyo of Toyama Maeda Toshiyasu wrote its foreword in Kōka 2(1845) yet update had been made thereafter. Most illustrations are correct, and illustrations of fish and shellfish are elaborated and detailed; Shapes of both inside and outside of shellfish and those from both mouth and opposite part of mouth of gastropods are portrayed, as well as same species with different colors, shapes, and sizes painted on multiple pages. Names, nicknames, dialects were presented, along with books referenced and the author’s opinions. The first half of Chapter 1 is dedicated to: preface, legend, illustrations of fish and shellfish, and renowned places of origin of 259 crustaceans; the second half of Chapter 1~Chapter 5: fish and shellfish; Chapter 6~9: gastropods; Chapter 10 Treasure Shellfish (based on subtitle in title page, the following chapters are titled in the same way): purple shellfish; Chapter 11 No Equality: abalone family; Chapter 12 Grotesque Shape: Scaphopoda, barnacle, common stalked barnacle, sea urchin; Chapter 13 Stream: shellfish splinters, gastropods’ lid; Chapter 14 Stormy Petrel or Starfish: distorted sea chestnut family, starfish, and spider starfish; and Chapter 15 Adhesion: shellfish attached to other objects. A total of 1169 strokes. Hattori Sessai, leading natural history artist of that time, was known to be the only illustrator of this book, yet recent studies confirmed that there are some handwritings which do not belong to Hattori Sessai. (Naohide Isono)(en)
