Yamato Kokoro shomeikahōgin やまとこゝろ諸名家芳吟 [Sweetheart of Japan. Praise from Famous Persons]
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- SIGNED
Four double-page & nine full-page color-printed illus. and ten pages of text with background coloring. 31.5 folding leaves. Small 8vo, orig. semi-stiff patterned wrappers, new stitching. Osaka: Unkindō 雲錦堂, 1857.
An early printing of this beautifully illustrated book with considerable blind embossing. The text and the illustrations have been printed on thickish paper, leaving deep impressions and giving a 3-D appearance. The subject of this book is a famous Osaka courtesan, Shikishima, of the Shinmachi pleasure quarter. For many years she worked in the Kyōya “tea house,” until she married a lacquer artisan. The book portrays her as a symbol of refinement and high taste, serving as a muse for painters, poets, and celebrities. The text is rich with puns and double meanings.
Akatsuki no Kanenari (1793-1860) was a prolific Osaka author, painter, and illustrator, producing books that blended humor, social commentary, and historical themes. Hanzan (1818-82), “was Osaka’s artist for all occasions, prepared to undertake whatever the publishers demanded, for verse-books, comic picture-books, and especially views of Osaka and its neighbourhood.”–Hillier. Brown considered him “one of the best of the Osaka illustrators of the years just before the Restoration.”
Very good copy, with the original printed wrapper. Minor worming throughout, well repaired. Preserved in a chitsu. The title-slip for the upper cover is not present.
❧ For author & artist, see Brown, Block Printing & Book Illustration in Japan, pp. 79-80, and Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, p. 861.
An early printing of this beautifully illustrated book with considerable blind embossing. The text and the illustrations have been printed on thickish paper, leaving deep impressions and giving a 3-D appearance. The subject of this book is a famous Osaka courtesan, Shikishima, of the Shinmachi pleasure quarter. For many years she worked in the Kyōya “tea house,” until she married a lacquer artisan. The book portrays her as a symbol of refinement and high taste, serving as a muse for painters, poets, and celebrities. The text is rich with puns and double meanings.
Akatsuki no Kanenari (1793-1860) was a prolific Osaka author, painter, and illustrator, producing books that blended humor, social commentary, and historical themes. Hanzan (1818-82), “was Osaka’s artist for all occasions, prepared to undertake whatever the publishers demanded, for verse-books, comic picture-books, and especially views of Osaka and its neighbourhood.”–Hillier. Brown considered him “one of the best of the Osaka illustrators of the years just before the Restoration.”
Very good copy, with the original printed wrapper. Minor worming throughout, well repaired. Preserved in a chitsu. The title-slip for the upper cover is not present.
❧ For author & artist, see Brown, Block Printing & Book Illustration in Japan, pp. 79-80, and Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, p. 861.