[Text title from first vol.]: Keichū mitsu no nagame 閨中三通廼詠 [Reciting Poetry in Three Different Ways in the Bedchamber]; [from the title-page in Vol. I]: Shinjo mitsu no nagame 真情蓑通乃奈がめ

Three frontis. & 21 double-page color-printed woodblock illus. 16; 12.5; 13.5 folding leaves. 12mo (113 x 80 mm.), orig. decorated semi-stiff wrappers with images of rabbits, snowflakes, & flowers, labels on upper covers with motif of flowers, old stitching. [Japan]: late Edo or early Meiji.




A very rare small-format erotic work, written by Ikkadō Injin 逸桂堂淫人 and illustrated by Kaikōtei Shujin 開好亭主人, both clearly pen names. These volumes are very finely illustrated with the theme of "snow, moon, and flower."


The artist was very accomplished, and the images are highly complex and skilled. The volumes use almost all of the techniques that make Japanese illustrated books so remarkable. This late shunga is richly colored and employs bokashi, the delicate variation of shading of pigment within the image; blind-embossing; and the very ample use of gold, silver, and copper pigments. The depicted garments are a mixture of extremely complex textures, colors, and patterns, all accentuated by blind-embossing and multiple woodblock impressions. There are two kinds of black, flat black and shiny black, rendering a most unusual appearance.


A very fine example. The title-page in Vol. I is a little cracked due to the use of metallic pigment.