The Art of Surimono: Privately Published Japanese Woodblock Prints and Books in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (Vols 1 and 2) by Keyes, Roger - 1994

Reprint from the 1880s of ukiyo-e artist Masanobu Okumura's depiction of nightlife in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters in the Edo era.Masanobu Okumura (1686-1764) was a Japanese print designer, book publisher, illustrator and painter.This orihon concertina-style book includes 38 double-page illustrations of geisha with their maids and samurai customers, playing board games and cards, smoking tobacco pipes, playing shamisen, reading books, etc. One plate shows the artist Okumura painting a large screen. 38 woodblock prints printed in three colors on 76 pages bound in orihon concertina-style with decorative washi paper over boards.Condition: binding repaired with washi paper, interior bright and fresh with no spotting.

Portland, OR: Nazraeli Press, 2015. Original black and white Type-C print signed by Daido Moriyama in gold ink on the front of the image it is tipped in. First edition / First printing. Limited edition. Number 437 of 500 copies. Metallic laminated boards. Very fine. The 90th publication in the Nazraeli Press One Picture Book series.

1956. Hard cover in original cloth. Text in Japanese. Folio, 10 1/2" x 13 3/4", 9 pp. text in Japanese, 54 one sided sheets of plates on heavy satin stock, plus 2 sheets of 27 plates of signatures and seals used by Sesshu. Plates have captions in English. Red cloth with black titles and designs. Some soiling and fade to the cloth, minor wear at the tips and spine ends. Very good. Fine internally. . Hard. Very Good/No Jacket. Folio.

Very good triptych of a charming scene of court ladies celebrating New Year.
A lady brings in a lacquer tray with the second course of a sumptuous New Year meal in three lacquered bowls to two noblewomen seated on the floor.
A scene from the series Chiyoda no o-oku (Inner Palace of Edo Castle), published Meiji 28-29 (1895-1896).
All the women wear elaborately embroidered silk kimono decorated with symbols of good luck: cranes, turtles and plums (right), fans and camellias (middle), and peonies (left).
The room is decorated with winter ikebana (probably a winter-blossoming camellia) and a shimenawa (a Shinto decoration made of foliage and paper) hanging from the alcove wall. A hibachi decorated with cranes is on the floor in front of the ladies.
Chikanobu, 1838-1912, also known as Chikanobu Toyohara, Hashimoto or Youshu, was a prolific Japanese painter and printmaker of the Meiji era. He worked in many genres including battle scenes, historical pictures, beauty pictures, famous sites, portraits,… Read More

Very good Japanese woodblock print by Utagawa Kunisada II
Depicting a rather unusual scene from a Kabuki play with two actors holding up another actor as though he were a puppet in a Bunraku play.
Nakamura Fukusuke I is paraded like a Puppet of Yaoya Hanbei by two supporting actors Arashi Kangoro I as Yoshida Kango (right), and Nakamura Kangoro I as Yoshida Kanta (left).
The play is Na Nomi Yaoya Ryori no Futsutsuka, from Wakaki no Ume Satomi no Yatsufusa.
Published by Hayashiya Shogoro in Tokyo in Ansei 4 of the Edo Era (1857).
Utagawa Kunisada II (1823-1880) was a Japanese ukiyo-e print maker and head of the Utagawa school. He worked in many genres including theatre actors (yakusha-e), beauty pictures (bijinga), erotica (shunga), literary scenes. He never achieved the level of success of his master.
Good impression with deep colour and rich black, slight age toning to the paper.
On verso, four adhesive stains to the bottom and top edges from a previous mount easily covered if matted. Small mark in… Read More

NEW hardbound isbn 0824032373 first edition and presumed first printing. IMPECCABLE PERFECT UNTOUCHED Suspect this was issued without a dust jacket. Doctprate study by Katheryn Linduff with 39 plates of charts, maps, and illustration
My scanner produces shadows that chould not be there

Toto Bunka. Tokyo. 1952-54. Six volumes. Folio. Paintings I, Paintings II, Sculpture, Ceramics and Metalwork, Textiles & Lacquer, Architecture and Gardens. Profusely illustrated. Original cloth, with some sunning, in original dust wrappers, some tears and chipping. Lower corner bumped to Vol. I.(Due to the weight of this item, additional shipping charges may apply overseas)

Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gill, S.A., 1995. Signed by Waro Kishi. First edition / First printing. Illustrated wrappers. Very fine. Text is in English and Spanish. A paperbound original. The first monograph in English on Waro Kishi.

Early 20th-century reprint of Utagawa's famous book on Japanese women's fashions originally published in 1802.Volume 1 only of the 2 volume set.With 25 full-color woodblock prints depicting 12 scenes over double pages with different classes of women, 23 pages of Japanese text.Includes woodcuts of noble courtiers under cherry blossom, samurai wives relaxing, concubines, merchant women, servants at bathhouse, dancers, laundress, nursemaid, etc.Condition: blue embossed paper boards scuffed and discolored, but interior clean and bright, woodcuts free of foxing. Traditional Yotsume Toji four-hole stab binding stitched on the right-margin. Toyokuni Utagawa (1769-1825), was a grand master ukiyo-e print designer and woodblock artist, known for his portraits of kabuki actors.

One volume only from the 8-volume series of guidebooks to the Enchuro School of ikebana or flower arrangement first published in Tokyo in 1807. 8 pages of text and 52 pages of woodcuts of ikebana featuring flowers in vases on tables, in hanging baskets, etc. Condition: Washi paper covers worn and fragile, binding resewn, the delicate woodcuts on thin washi paper mostly clean and bright. Ikebana was a very popular leisure activity in the Edo Era. The Enchuro-Ryu was a new school of ikebana that emerged in the early 19th century alongside the Senke-shinryu, Ko-ryu, Enshu-ryu, Yoken-ryu, Doku-ryu, Shofu-ryu, and many others to challenge the established Genji, Ikenobo and Senke schools.