Taisei shinshafu 大成真写譜 [Detailed & Accurate Images of Plants & Animals]

Two full-page & 50 double-page color-printed woodcuts. 30.5; 28 folding leaves. Two vols. Large 8vo, orig. semi-stiff wrappers, orig. title slips on upper covers, new stitching. Osaka: Shibakawa Mataemon 芝川又右衛門, 1888.




First edition of this beautifully illustrated natural history book. It is rare: WorldCat 673623988 lists only the National Diet Library copy. Kondō (fl. 1830-50), a student of the prominent Kyoto painter Kishi Ganku (1756-1838), became well known by the early 1830s and was mentioned in the Heian Jinbutsu Shi edition (a Japanese Who's Who of prominent people). Kondō's art was acknowledged to have surpassed that of his teacher, but sadly Kondō died relatively young, sometime in the mid to late 1850s. While Kondō was primarily a painter, he did execute some woodblock illustrations.


The publisher, Shibakawa, a wealthy Osaka merchant and one-time art pupil of Kondō, collected the drawings, sketches, and albums made by Kondō. Following Kondō's death, Shibakawa engaged Nanbara to assemble the finest illustrations of plants, fish, birds, insects, and animals and published them in the present work. We had a major collection of Kondō's artwork - see our Catalogue 204 - including the original drawings for Taisei shinshafu, which are now in the New York Public Library.


Very fine and fresh set, preserved in a chitsu.