MASTERPIECES SELECTED FROM THE UKIYOYE SCHOOL [ EIBUN UKIYOE-HA GASHU]

1906. SHIMBI SHOIN, publisher. MASTERPIECES SELECTED FROM THE UKIYOYE SCHOOL [EIBUN UKIYOE-HA GASHU]. Tokyo, Shimbi Shoin, Meiji 39-42, [1906-9]. 5 large folio volumes (19.5 x 13.5 inches), each bound in beautiful decorated silk over boards, secured with tassles, in the 5 original grass cloth clasped chitsu cases with printed silk title labels. This epitome of the Ukiyo-e school and its development, edited by Shiichi Tajima, et al., was and is a remarkable scholarly and artistic triumph of book-making and the finest production of its kind ever attempted. There are over 150 color woodcut reproductions in the set, some of which are said to have taken days to finish, since as many as 200 separate woodblocks were used to create the effects. This is the original edition of the set. Complete, including the magnificent triptych, plate number 155 [in volume 5], which was not included when the set was originally published in Japanese. The set is near fine, though the case are a bit worn (one clasp is missing). Unusual in any case, this set is almost completely unobtainable thus - in a complete English translation, by Professor Joseph King Goodrich. It would appear that as few as 100 copies of the translated set were published. Complete in five volumes:.