[百人一首歌留多
(Hyakunin Isshu Karuta, “Cards of One Hundred Poems by One Hundred Poets”)]

[Keisai, Eisen (illustrated by)].

[Tōkyō]: Shiba Senichi, [ca. 1850-60s].

A complete set of two hundred uncut hyakunin isshu cards (one hundred poem cards and one hundred poet cards) in eight leaves. The publisher and printer was Shiba Senichi (芝泉市), ...

[Hyakunin Isshu karuta]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. Edo period (1750-1850s)?]. In manuscript.

A complete set of two hundred Hyakunin Isshu playing cards (karuta). The Hyakunin Isshu card game (a form of uta-garuta ("poetry karuta")) is based on the anthology of one hundred waka poems by one hundred poets compiled by Fujiwara no Teika in the thirtee ...

Imayō Mitate Hori Suri Ryōkō no Zu ["A Modern-day Adaptation Picturing Carving and Printing"]

Utagawa, Kunisada [Toyokuni III] [illustrated by]. 

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. Taishō period (1910-20s)?].

A simplified Taishō-era (?) reproduction of the triptych Imayō Mitate Shi-Nō-Kō-Shō: Shokunin ("A Modern-day Adaptation of the Four Classe ...

Kyōto: Miyabi-kai, [ca. 1920-30s].

An early Shōwa period invitation to an exhibition of fabrics with new dyeing and weaving designs held by the Miyabi-kai. Information about the location and time of the event appears in the illustration of the gramophone and its base when the lower moving section of the card is revolved.

One card, complete. Light di ...

[Japan]: H. Ahrens & Co., [ca. 1870-1910].

A piece of packaging for 'Turkey red' (a colour used to dye cotton fabrics) with a lithographic label tipped-in. H. Ahrens & Co. was a German trading company based in Tōkyō with branches in Yokohama and Kōbe. John Orr Ewing & Co. was the name of a prominent Turkey red firm in Scotland.

O ...

Joreishiki no Zu ["Illustrations of Ladies' Etiquette"] 

[Yasui], Kotō [illustrated by].

Nihonbashi, [Tōkyō]: Matsuno Yonejirō, Meiji 28 [1895].

A colour woodblock-printed album of scenes of elegant Japanese ladies engaging in traditionally appropriate pastimes and ceremonies. The fourteen scenes spread over eight leaves picture women exchanging N ...

Mizushima, Kōyō (Isaiah) [edited by].

Tōkyō : Seikyō Honkai Henshūjo, Meiji 39 [1906]. First edition.

A document printed to commemorate a celebration by the congregation of the Japanese Orthodox Church for the 25th anniversary of Bishop Nikolai Kasatkin (1836–1912) and his elevation to Archbishop of All Japan by the Russian Orthodox Holy Syno ...

Kachi-Kachi Mountain

Hiro, Kodō [Japanese indirectly translated by]; Thompson, David [English translation by].

Tōkyō: Hiro Kodō, Hasegawa Takejirō, Meiji 20 [1887].

A supplement to issue 1,219 of Eiri Jiyū Shinbun featuring the translation of Kachi-Kachi Yama originally used in one of Hasegawa Takejirō's famous chirimenbon (crepe-paper books). The tex ...

Kaichū Hoshi Tokei ["Pocket-Sized Clock of the Stars"]

Senshūkan Shujin [created by].

[Japan]: Marita Genryōdō, Kaei 5 [1852].

A chart of the "Twenty-Eight Mansions" of Chinese astronomy (loosely equivalent to the zodiacal constellations of Western astronomy), with text describing the locations of five mansions for each of the 24 divisions of the solar y ...

Kaichū Jūhō ["Important Treasures, Pocket-Sized"]

[Creator/s unidentified]. 

Ōsaka: Honya Kitarō, [ca. late Edo to early Meiji period (1840-60s)?].

A portable booklet of charts and volvelles used in astrology for fortune-telling, featuring six woodblock-printed panels. Three of the panels feature intact volvelles used to quickly determine days and ...

Kaiunbashi Daiichi Ginkō ["Kaiunbashi Bridge and the First National Bank"]

Kobayashi, Kiyochika [illustrated by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. early to mid-twentieth century?]. 

A later printing or re-carved edition of arguably Kiyochika's most famous work: a snowy scene featuring the First National Bank and Kaiunbashi Bridge in Tokyo. A se ...

Kanadehon Chūshingura, Dai-Kudanme ["The Treasury of Loyal Retainers: Act Nine"]

Kōchōrō [Utagawa], Kunisada [illustrated by].

[Edo (Tōkyō)]: Yorozuya Kichibē, [ca. Edo period (1830-40s?)].

A scene from Act 9 of Kanadehon Chūshingura, one of Japan's most popular plays, illustrated by Utagawa Kunisada I (Toyokuni III, 1786–1864). The work seems ...

Kanegura Sandaiki ["Three Generations of Treasuries"]

Hattori [Mantei], Ōga [text by]; Seisei [Kawanabe], Kyōsai [illustrated by]. 

Tōkyō: Kobayashi [Tsuruya] Kiemon ... [et al.], Meiji 7 [1874].

A set of three Kyōsai-Ōga zasshi issues, complete, about a family's economic struggles revolving around their pawnshop Iseya. The title of the moralist ...

Kanzeon Reigenki Hyakuban Mokuroku ["Record of the Miracles of Kannon: Index of the One Hundred Pilgrimage Sites"]

Ōju Mantei, Ōga [text by]; [Utagawa], Toyokuni [III], [Utagawa], Hiroshige [II] [illustrated by]. 

[Edo (Tōkyō): Nanden Nisanshō, Ansei 6 (1859)]. 

The index print for a series of nishiki-e listing one hundred temples from three pil ...

Katawa Musume ["The Deformed Girl"]

Fukuzawa, Yukichi [text by]. 

[Tōkyō]: Fukuzawa Yukichi, Meiji 5 [1872]. 

A short satire attacking the traditional Japanese custom of married women blackening their teeth and shaving off their eyebrows, by the famed reformer, educator, and expert on Western civilisation Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901). The work is ...

Kikkyō Kafuku Hitorihandan: Ekigaku Benmō ["Judgements on Good and Bad Fortunes: A Primer on the Study of Divination"]

Kataoka, Kenzō [edited by].

Kyōto: Nakamura Asakichi, Meiji 19 [1886].

A fortune-telling book and sangi (counting rod) set, housed in its original box. To tell one's fortune, the six rods would be thrown, and the resulting hexagram ...

Kiso Kaidō Rokujūkyū-tsugi ["Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kiso Road"]

[Keisai], Eisen, [Utagawa], Hiroshige [illustrated by].

Tōkyō: Shin'eidō, Taishō 10 [1921].

A Taishō era set of reduced-size woodblock-printed reproductions of Eisen and Hiroshige's famous Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō series originally published between 1835 and 1837. ...

木曽路之山川
[Kisoji no Yamakawa, “Mountain River on the Kiso Road”]

[Utagawa], Hiroshige I [illustrated by].

[Japan: unidentified publisher, ca. early to mid-20th century].

A set of three unused postcards delicately woodblock-printed with Hiroshige's famous illustration of the snowy Kiso Valley. Originally printed in 1857, Mountain River o ...

Kiyoki ["Purity"]

Tabata, Seikō, Yoshī, Seisen, Yamada, Seikyo [edited by].

Kyōto: Gōmei Gaisha Unsōdō, Meiji 40 [1907].

The first volume (all published) of the little-known Unsōdō publication Kiyoki. The large format volume features fifty colour woodblock-printed designs for kimono, presumably by the editors Tabata Seikō, Yoshī Seisen, and Yamada Seikyo ...

Kokkei Ō-A Gaikō Chizu = A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia

Nishida, Suketarō [text by]; Ohara, Kisaburō [envisaged by]; Nakamura, Shingo [supervised by].

Ishikawa: Nishida Suketarō, Meiji 37 [1904]. Third edition.

A satirical map produced in Japan during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). The work shows Russia as a giant octopus whose tentacl ...

Kōko Shinbun ["World News"]

Fukuchi, Gen'ichirō [produced by]. 

[Edo (Tōkyō): Fukuchi Gen'ichirō], Keiō 4 [1868]. 

Issues 1-5 of Kōko Shinbun, a pro-Bakufu newspaper founded by the reporter, interpreter, and Tokugawa loyalist Fukuchi Gen'ichirō (1841-1906). The issues include illustrations lifted from British and French newspapers, se ...

Kōkoku ["Advertisement"]

[Company name illegible].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late Edo to Meiji period (1850-1900s)?]. 

A woodblock-printed advertisement for bunshi (文紙), described in the document as "various [blank] documents for transactions [financial, legal, or otherwise] made between people". The firm offers these printed documents at a ...

"皇国雷名の諸君見立力競"

[Katsushika?], Masahisa [illustrated by].

Tōkyō : [publisher illegible], Meiji 15 [1882].

An engrossing triptych featuring over three hundred famous people engaged in bouts of kubihiki. Kubihiki was a Japanese game in which a looped string was placed around the necks of two people and a trial of strength would ensue. In this work, cel ...

Kokon moyō-shū: musō kōeki monchō ["Collection of ancient and modern designs: patterns to gain unparalleled profits"]

Murakami, Masatake [edited by].

Ōsaka: Maekawa Zenbē, Meiji 18 [1885].

A copperplate-engraved textbook on design, featuring ten pages of colour designs (the colours possibly woodblock-printed), the rest monochrome. Perhaps intended as a ma ...

[Kotatsu (Heated table)]

[Itō], Shinsui [illustrated by].

[Tōkyō]: Watanabe, Shōwa 6 [1931].

Kotatsu, a woodblock print designed by Itō Shinsui and published by Watanabe Shōzaburō in 1931 as part of the series Gendai Bijin-shū: Dai-ni-shū (Collection of Modern Beauties: Second Series), depicts a young woman seated in a kotatsu (heated table covered by a ...

Kotengeki no Shinenshutsu wa Ikani Arubekika: Sheikusupia "Uenisu no Shōnin" (Mingei, Nissei Gekijo Kōen) ni Tsuite ["How Should New Productions of Classic Plays be Staged? Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (Mingei and Nissei Theatre Productions)"]

Takei, Teruo [written by].

[Japan, ca. 1968]. Handwritten.

A draft in pen of an article by famed lit ...

Kudanzaka Satsuki no yoru ["A night in May at Kudanzaka Hill"]

Kobayashi, Kiyochika [illustrated by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. early to mid-twentieth century?]. 

A later printing or re-carved edition of Kiyochika's illustration of a rainy night at Kudanzaka. Figures seem to disappear off the edge of the world as they descend the steps i ...

Kyōto zuan ["Kyoto designs"] 

Okada, Shikō, Shimomura, Gyokukō [edited by]; 

Kyōto: Kyōto Zuan Zasshi Hakkō-bu, Meiji 43 [1910]. 

Issues 60, 62, and 63 of series 5 of the magazine Kyōto Zuan. Each issue features colourful patterns (some lithographic), monochrome collotype illustrations, and articles on design by contributors. 

& ...

Kyū no tsukihi: shinpan hanji-e ["Days of the old (lunar) calendar: new edition puzzle-picture"]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, Meiji 22 (1889)?]. 

Egoyomi ("picture-calendars") or Nanbu goyomi ("Nanbu calendars") were originally produced in the Edo period for illiterate people and grew in popularity as privately printed New ...

Majinai Hyakkajo ["One Hundred Charms"] 

[Author/s and illustrator/s unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late Edo period (1840-60s?)].

A collection of one hundred spells (majinai), "revised and reprinted", for medical ailments like toothache, earache, chilblains, colds, seasickness, burns, and insect and dog bites. Other charms address ...

Manpō Eitai Shin-zassho: Nihon-zu-iri; Saigō Chōhōki ["New Miscellany of Countless Eternal Treasures, with a Map of Japan; Useful Record of Year Names"] 

[Tokanshi (selections by)?].

Edo [Tōkyō]: Tsubameya Yashichi, [ca. mid to late Edo period (1750-1770s)?]. 

An encyclopaedic sheet, woodblock-printed on both sides, providing astrological, histor ...

[Untitled Programme/Menu]

[Japan: publisher unidentified], 1923.

A programme and menu for a US-Japan themed celebration, in French. The embossed naval crest on the upper section of the card implies the event was held on a ship.

Mitate Hakkei: Yashima Sekishō ["Selection for the Eight Views: Evening Glow at Yashima"]

Ichiyusai [Utagawa], Kuniyoshi [illustrated by].

[Shibamishima-cho, (Tokyo)]: Wakasaya, [1846].

An unusual triptych from Kuniyoshi's Selection for the Eight Views series, featuring a scene from the Battle of Yashima of the warrior monk Benkei peering through ...

Miuchi-zoroi ["Collection of Beauties"]

Kikukawa, Eizan [illustrated by].

[Japan: Iwatoya Kisaburō, ca. Edo period (1800-20s)].

A courtesan adjusts her tortoiseshell hair ornaments in a pocket mirror, tissues tucked under her chin. This print seems to be from a different series than Eizan's similarly named Shoshoku Miuchi-zoroi and Fūryū Miuc ...

Mondokoro kirikata ["Stencils for crest-cutting"]

Arai, Isaburō [illustrated by].

[Edo (Tōkyō)]: Ōnoya Kinzō, [ca. late Edo period (1830-50s)?].

Two issues of a playful work on cutting kamon (family crests) from folded paper. The instructions on the upper wrappers indicate how to fold the paper and how to use the issues - a monkiri ("crest-cutting") can ...

Moyō gajō ["Album of patterns"]

[Artist unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. early Shōwa period (1920-40s)?]. 

An album of fourteen colour woodblock-printed patterns. Six of the patterns feature multiple colours; the remaining eight are single-colour prints. It is possible the prints were removed from a larger volume and bound in handmad ...

Muyōsei ["The Six Personalities"] 

[Utagawa], Toyokuni [III] [illustrated by].

[Tōkyō: Ibasen, Kaei 6 (1853)].

A complete set of uchiwa-e (fan prints) illustrated by Kunisada I (Toyokuni III) for the publisher and fan shop Ibasen (founded 1590). Each beautiful woman in this series represents one of the six days from the traditional Japanese fortune-te ...

Nanakorobi Yaoki Kaiun Sugoroku ["The Vicissitudes of Life: Game-Sheet of Fortune and Success"] 

Takabatake, Kashō [illustrated by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late 20th century?]. 

A reproduction, possibly from the late 20th century, of a Taishō-era period "game of life" sugoroku, sealed in its original plastic wrapper and with its orig ...

Natsu no Sugatami ["Full-Length Mirror of Summer's Beauty"]

Nagata, Sobu [edited by]. 

Nagoya: Fusō Shinbunsha, Meiji 30 [1897]. 

A supplement published to commemorate the 3000th issue of the Nagoya-based newspaper Fusō Shinbun. The booklet adapts the popular Sanjūni Mensō ("Thirty-Two Amusing Expressions") trope and was probably inspired ...

Natsu-matsuri Ikiji no Edokko [Summer Festival Spirit of the Edoites]

[Utagawa], Toyokuni [III] [illustrated by]. 

[Edo (Tōkyō)]: [Ōta] Takichi, [1858].

The rōnin Issun Tokubē (left) fights fishmonger (and accidental murderer) Danshichi Kurobē (right) in this dramatic scene from the kabuki Natsu Matsuri Naniwa Kagami illustrated by Utagawa Kunisada I ...

"新形友禅模様"

[Illustrator unidentified].

[Tōkyō]: Shiseidō, [ca. 1900-1920s].

A chiyogami paper illustrated with a design for yūzen dyeing of waves, flowers, and shallow sake cups marked with the character 壽 ("lucky"), woodblock-printed with a metallic pigment.

One leaf, complete. Browned, light creases, a few bumps to extremities ...

Nigatsu Yōka Kinshō no Hito Uke ni Iri ["February 8th, Luck to Those Born Under the Metal Element"]

[Kawanabe], Kyōsai [illustrated by].

Nihonbashi, [Tōkyō]: Takekawa Seikichi, [ca. Meiji period (1875-1890)?]. 

Uke-e - lucky prints - were presents sent to people entering their year of luck (whether a year was lucky for an individual was divined using ...

Noshi Shinpon ["New Book of Noshi"]

[Compiler unidentified].

[Japan, ca. early Meiji period (1870-90s)]. 

An album containing approximately 265 tipped-in examples of woodblock-printed noshi. Noshi are folded paper decorations designed to be affixed to wrapped gifts. In earlier times, noshi were strips of dried abalone (symbolising longevity) attached ...

Luchon: Sarthe, [ca. 1909].

An advertisement for the Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese wares of antiquities dealer M. Armand Loge, who is known to have published a catalogue of East Asian art objects including carved woods, bronzes, weapons, ivories, netzuke, lacquers, and inrō from the Collection Rabeuf in 1909. The name Tagawa-ya in the bottom left of the print is proba ...

Odamaki ["Columbine"] 

Dai Nihon Zuan Kyōkai Henshūbu [edited by], Ogiwara, Kunizō [editors represented by]; Komuro, Shinzō [essay by].

Kyōto: Gōmei Gaisha Unsōdō, Meiji 40 [1907].

One of the scarcest zuan ("design") publications on zuan pedagogy. The album features eight designs selected from illustrations exhibited by the Industrial Design Dep ...

Ōdontaku Shinbun Kidan ["Great Sunday Newspaper: Stories of Demons"]

Mantei, Ōga [text by]; Seisei [Kawanabe], Kyōsai [illustrations by]. 

Tōkyō: Yamazakiya Seishichi ... [et al.], Meiji 5-6 [1872-1873]. 

Issues 1 and 2 (all published) of a Kyōsai-Ōga zasshi on the exploits of the monks Anrakubō and Narakubō in the six realms of the afterlife. Th ...

Ōmi hakkei ["Eight views of Ōmi"]

[Artist unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late Edo to early Meiji period (1840-70s)?].

A set of eight woodblock-printed nishiki-e featuring the famed Eight views of Ōmi (Ōmi hakkei). The prints use the same circular theme, decorative circular border, and poems employed by Utagawa Toyohiro in his Eight view ...

Orimono shō-e ["Textile designs"] 

[Illustrator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. late Meiji period (1900-10s)]. In manuscript.

An album of over 400 tipped-in textile designs by an unidentified artist. The designs feature flowers, plants, people, landscapes, animals, fans, butterflies, ships, and a variety of other objects. Several feature images of sol ...

Otoshidama ["New Year's Gift"]

Yamada, Jinzō [edited by].

Nagoya: Shōeidō, Meiji 26 [1893]. 

A large hikifuda (advertisement) produced for Hayashi Shinbun-ho, a shipping company based in Hamamatsu that also produced newspapers and magazines. The hikifuda is presented as an otoshidama (New Year's gift), presumably in an attempt to encourage mor ...

[Collection of Oshi-e Templates]

[Creator unidentified]. 

[Japan, ca. early to mid-Meiji period (1860-1880s)?]. 

A collection of 157 envelopes housing paper templates used to make oshi-e (raised pictures made with padded cloth). The templates would have been affixed to thick cloth, which would then have been cut to the same size as the paper. The ...