HANSHIN MEISHO-ZUE

1916. [SKETCHTOUR GENRE] Kanao Bun'endo, publisher. HANSHIN MEISHO-ZUE A folding album of 24 (of 30) prints - oban size color woodcut, printed by Nishimura Kumakichi and published by Kanao Bun'endo in 1916,17. The finest of all of Bun'endo's remarkable porfolio productions, The HANSHIN MEISHO ZUE is a great rarity, even individual prints from the series of 30 are by no means common. We are missing only prints #7, 21-25 (6 in all). There are two prefatory pages, one is a map of the trip around western Japan depicted herein, the other a table of contents. Also, one of the Akamatsu Rinsaku designed portfolio cover prints has been mounted as preface to the whole series, while four others have been trimmed and mounted on two pages at the end. The artists who designed the prints were Akamatsu Rinsaku (1878-1953), Noda Kyuho (1879-1971), Hata Tsuneharu(1883-? ), Mizushima Nihou (or Nihofu) (1884-1958) and Nagai Hyosai (1882-1945). For more on this remarkable work, see Charles Mitchell's article in ESSAYS ON JAPANESE ART PRESENTED TO JACK HILLIER. Our copy is very clean in a new brocade over stiff paper covers with a hand-brushed title label. There is a bit of foxing, but it is confined to the stubs upon which the prints are mounted. The images themselves are lovely and extrememly well-printed.