[Untitled painting of a woman daydreaming]

Hatori, Kozan [painted by].  

[Japan, ca. Taishō to early Shōwa period (1910-30s)?]. In manuscript.

A large (176 x 108.5 cm) painting of an exhausted woman daydreaming of a rough sea voyage as a butterfly flutters around her head. The artist, Hatori Kozan (1891-), studied under Kajita Hanko (1870-1917) a ...

"滑稽 笑袋"

Murata, Tamesaburō [text by].

Tōkyō: Hakkōdō, Meiji 27 [1894].

A woodblock-printed collection of amusing mistakes and misheard words. The compilation, publication of which was certified by the Home Ministry, is almost entirely in katakana.

One leaf, complete. Creases, light foxing, marks, small hole and sticker removal. 24 ...

[Untitled Album]

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. mid-Meiji to Taishō period (1890-1920s)?].

An album of thirty colour woodblock-printed spreads produced for calligraphy enthusiasts, who could write in brush and ink directly onto the pages or ask ...

[Untitled Menuki]

[Higashiyama, (Kyōto)?: workshop unidentified, ca. Edo period (17th to mid-19th century)].

A metal menuki (fitting for a sword hilt) in the shape of three Japanese books, two with yotsumetoji (four-hole) bindings and one with a musubitoji (yamatotoji) stabbinding. The mounted daisen title of the stab-bound volume reads Nagauta (長� ...

Shōgaku Dokuhon Kangaku Suiteki [“Elementary Reader: Water-Dropper for the Encouragement of Learning”]

[Japan: workshop unidentified, ca. early to mid Meiji period (1870-1890s)].

A Bizen ware suiteki (water-dropper used to add water to ink for calligraphy or penmanship practice) in the shape of a fukurotoji-bound Japanese book. Bizen pottery is traditi ...

[(Japan?): maker unidentified, ca. Shōwa period (20th century)].

A playful obi patterned with small, vibrantly coloured books within golden frames, probably produced in the Shōwa period.

One obi. Minor rubbing to background fabric. Cream-coloured underside. Approximately 430 x 31 cm.

[A collection of 39 fans]

Kamisaka, Sekka, Tomioka, Tessai, Takeuchi, Seihō .. [et al.] [illustrated by].

[Kyōto?: publisher/s unidentified, ca. late Meiji to early Shōwa period (1910-1920s?)].

A beautifully preserved collection of 39 eye-catching sensu fans featuring designs based on fruits, flowers, landscapes, people, and animals, by acclaimed artists i ...

Naimono-zukushi ["A Compilation of Things That Aren't"]

[Author/s unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late Edo period (1820-50s?)].

A "collection of things that aren't"; each line of text ends with nai, a negative form of a verb or an auxiliary verb and adjective indicating the lack or non-existence of something. For example, one lin ...

Goshinpatsu Hitotsutose-bushi ["Military Departure: A Hitotsutose Song"]

[Author/s unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late Meiji period (1890-1910s?)].

A hitotsutose counting song in twenty verses on a military campaign, possibly printed around the time of the First Sino-Japanese War or the Russo-Japanese War. Hitotsutose was a type of kazo ...

[Fabric Fragment].

[Designer unidentified].

[Japan: manufacturer unidentified, ca. Meiji period (1868-1912)?].

A cutting of fabric embroidered with a bird's-eye image of people dancing on a bridge. The fragmen ...

[Fabric fragment]

[Designer unidentified].

[Japan: manufacturer unidentified, ca. Meiji period (1868-1912)?].

A cutting of fabric embroidered with clouds, pine trees, waves, and foreign ships. The fragment, which ...

[A lady's chatelaine pencil case, with Japanese motifs]

[Craftsperson unidentified].

[S.l., ca. 19th century?].

A beautiful chatelaine pencil case, possibly Victorian, featuring distinctly Japanese motifs. The pencil case would have been attached to a chain hung from a decorative belt clasp (chatelaine). Useful household items like scissors and keys co ...

[A large woodblock used for printing medical advertisements]

[Creator unidentified].

Mino-no-kuni [Gifu]: [manufacturer unidentified, ca. late Edo period (18th to mid-19th century)?].

A large woodblock used around the late Edo period for printing advertisements for taidoku medicine. Taidoku (literally "inherent poison" (i.e. a disease believed to have been ...

[A Meiji era photograph of Japanese police graduating from an English language class]

[Photographer unidentified].

[Japan: studio unidentified], 1906.

A photograph produced during the Meiji era. The handwritten caption reads (in English) "June 28, 1906. Graduating ceremony of English student [sic] of police". Two foreign women and one foreign man are pictu ...

[Kitao, Masayoshi ... (et al.) (illustrated by)].

[Tōkyō]: Sekaidō, [ca. mid-Shōwa period (1930-50s)?].

A collection of four postcards introducing famous places in Tokyo, featuring an illustration of a shop selling ezōshi (illustrated books), nishiki-e (ukiyo-e prints), hanging scrolls, and other items in Asakusa's Nakamise shopping street. ...

Odoke Jitsugokyō: irozato machijū anazukushi, shohen ["A witty Jitsugokyō: all sorts of tales from around the pleasure quarters, first part"]

[Author unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified], Tenpō 2 [1831].

The Jitsugokyō ("Teachings of the words of truth") was a textbook on morality used for learning kanji and kanbun (literary Sinitic) at terakoya ...

[Untitled Album of the Activities of the Washi Research Institute)]

[Uemura, Rokurō (compiled by)].

[Japan, ca. mid-Shōwa period (1950s)].

A scrapbook of tipped-in photographs and fabric samples compiled by Uemura Rokurō, a renowned researcher of dyeing and weaving. The scrapbook includes pictures of Dr. Hans Drissler (who founded the Japan Paper Import Co ...

[A forged scroll of examples of Rai San'yō seals]

[Artist unidentified].

[Japan, ca. late Edo to early Shōwa period (1860-1920s?)]. In manuscript with seal impressions.

A scroll featuring a painted gourd hand stamped with fifty examples of seals of various names used by the Nanga School artist and Confucianist philosopher Rai San'yō (1780-1832). Th ...

[A "third type" decree banning Christianity, issued by the Meiji government]

[Japan]: Daijō-kan, Keiō 4 [1868]. Wooden placard.

In Keiō 4 (1868), the first year of Meiji, the newly formed Meiji government issued five official decrees or notices (the Gobō no Keiji) to be displayed on wooden placards across Japan. The third decree enforced a strict prohibition of Ki ...

[Album of works by calligraphers and artists]

Seishū, Baien, Tekiho, Keiho, ... [et al.] [illustrations and calligraphy by].

[Japan, ca. late Meiji to Taishō period (1900-20s)?]. In manuscript.

An album of elegant hand-painted illustrations and calligraphy by a range of little-known Japanese artists and calligraphers. The album contains seven double-page ...

[Japan: workshop unidentified, ca. mid-Meiji period (1870-1900s)].

An opulent serving dish patterned with floral devices and book motifs. An apocryphal Chinese 'Chenghua' mark reading Daimin Seika nen sei (“made during the Chenghua reign of the Great Ming Dynasty”) adorns the base. This mark was used on Chinese ceramics and employed by Edo era Japanese ...

[An untitled collection of twenty-three kamon and katagami stencils]

[Creator/s unidentified]. 

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

A collection of beautiful hand-cut stencils for textile dyeing. Most of the stencils feature kamon (circular family crests) and would have been used on the back panel of coats. ...

Asakusa Kinryuzan Kaminarimon [Kaminarimon at Kinryūsan Temple, Asakusa]

[Hasegawa], Konobu [illustrated by].

Ōsaka: Tanaka Yasu [Yasujirō], [ca. Meiji 10 (1878)]. 

Determined temple-goers hold their umbrellas aloft as they fight their way through the crowded Kaminarimon in Asakusa on a rainy night. Senshafuda (votive slips) have been paste ...

[Banshoku tejōchin ("Hand-lanterns for all sorts of professions")]

Sankanjin, Kōrai [text by]; [Ikkōsai, Ikumaru (illustrated by)].

[Tōkyō: Yoshidaya Bunzaburō, ca. late Edo to early Meiji period (1850-70s?)].

A guidebook to a special calligraphic style which emerged in the late Edo period for use in advertisements, especially those handpainted on lantern ...

Bijutsukai ["Sea of Art"]

Yamada, Naosaburō [produced by]; Furuya, Kōrin, Kaigai, Tennen, Kamisaka, Sekka ... [et al.] [illustrated by].

Kyōto: Yamada Unsōdō, Meiji 32-38 [1899-1905].

Issues 31-40, 58, 59, 61, 62, and 63 (of 70) of the acclaimed zuan magazine Bijutsukai. Replete with stunning colour woodblock-printed designs for textiles (and occasionally ...

Bojutsu Yumemonogatari ["Dream Story of 1838"]

Takano, Chōei [work by]; [Takizawa (copied by)?].

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

In Tenpō 8 (1837), the American trading ship the Morrison, captained by Charles King, was met with cannon fire upon its arrival in Japan. Japan was still officially closed to other countries in the 1830s, so this w ...

Chinbun Kanbun ["Curious Pieces of Nonsense News"]

[Suzuki, Rainosuke (illustrated by)?].

Ōsaka: Wataya Kihē, Meiji 10 [1877]. 

Issues 1-8 of this scarce Ōsaka-based periodical, bound and sold by the publisher in one volume. The bizarre cover illustration features electric cables (to which eyes and many ears are attached), a tanuki riding a stag, a fo ...

Chinshō Shinshi ["New Magazine of Rare Laughs"]

Noda, Chiaki [Takashimaya, Tōu] [edited by]; [Kawanabe], Kyōsai [illustrated by].

Tōkyō: Kaichinsha, Meiji 11 [1878]. 

Issue two of the comical magazine Chinshō Shinshi, featuring a woodblock-printed upper wrapper in a toba-e style by Kyōsai. The illustration depicts the "Three Laughing Men at Tiger Broo ...

Dai-hiden Hakusajin-shū ["Collection of People of the White Sand: Extremely Secret Transmissions"]; Hisho Yōketsu ["Key Points of Secret Volumes"]; Haikai Shinshinshiki ["New Forms of Haikai"]

[Matsuo, Bashō (attributed to)]; Morikawa, Kyoriku [original text by]; [Yūsetsuan, Kōmyō (hand-copied by)?].

Ōji Seishi-Gaisha Ryakuzu ["Diagram of the Ōji Paper Company"]

Ōsai [Utagawa], Fusatane [Murai, Shizuma] [illustrated by]. 

Asakusa, [Tōkyō]: Tsunashima Kamekichi, Meiji 10 [1877].

A copperplate-printed diagram of the different stages of papermaking at the Ōji Paper Company. The illustration depicts the paper mill the company built in 1875 i ...

Kurisumasu Karoru ["A Christmas Carol"]

Dickens, [Charles] [original text by]; Yaguchi, Tatsu [translated by].

Tōkyō : Uetake Shoin, Taishō 4 [1915].

An early Japanese edition of Dickens's classic novel by Yaguchi Tatsu (1889-1936), translator of works by Wilde, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Cervantes, Boccaccio, Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, Jack London, Hav ...

英和四書：別冊 大學・中庸 英文 全 [Eiwa Shisho: Bessatsu Daigaku, Chūyō, Eibun, Zen, “Four Books of the Chinese Classics Translated into English”]

[Confucius; Zisi (original texts by)]; Legge, James [translated by]; Imamura, N[agayoshi] [revised and translated into Japanese by].

Tōkyō: Z.P. Maruya & Co., Meiji 18 [1885]. "New edition".

Jame ...

Eiwa Tsūshin ["English-Japanese Transmissions"]

[Creator unidentified].

Asakusa, [Tōkyō]: Seyama Sakichi, Meiji 20 [1888].

A small copperplate-printed book of English words with diagrams, meanings, and pronunciations in Japanese. Because of the lack of visibility of the page numbers, it is difficult to determine if the work is complete. The first page, ...

[Embroidered purse] 

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. mid to late Edo period (1800-1850s?)]. 

An ornate purse from the Edo period, hand-embroidered with purple and white irises. The string and small fabric bauble attached to the purse are more recent, possibly from the mid to late twentieth century. 

One fabric purs ...

Okada Domain, [Okayama]: Shichiya Kojimaya, Kyōho 17 [1732].

Four woodblock-printed hansatsu, feudal scrip used in the place of legal tender. These ginsatsu ("silver notes") each represent one monme (3.75g) of silver, and were issued in Kyōho 17 (1732).

Four leaves, printed on both sides. Wear, light soiling, creases. Each leaf measures 19.7 × ...

[Four single-leaf advertisements]

Saitō, Moemon ... [et al.] [text by]; [Kobayashi], Kiyochika ... [et al.] [illustrations by].

[Japan: Kitagawaya, Gusokuya, ca. late Meiji period (1880-1900s)?].

A set of hikifuda (advertisements) produced for the bookseller Kitagawaya (Saitō Moemon) and the jihon doiya Gusokuya Kahei. The single print produced for Gusoku ...

[Koshōtei, Sanjin (edited by).

Kyōto: Maria Gabō, ca. early Shōwa period (1920-30s)].

Four colour woodblock-printed reproductions of book-envelopes and wrappers of kusazōshi books, affixed at the edges to make one large leaf. The illustrations are probably from Sōshi Monyōshū (草紙文様集), a collection published in the early Shōwa period by Maria Gabō.

& ...

[Four untitled woodblock prints from Sekka's Ashide-e]

[Kamisaka, Sekka (illustrated by)].

[Kyōto: Kamisaka Yoshiaki, Shōwa 19 (1944)]. 

Four (of six) ashide-e designed by Kamisaka Sekka (1866–1942), from Ashide-e: Sekka Isaku ("Ashide Illustrations: Posthumous Works by Sekka"). Sekka intended the six prints in Ashide-e to be used as a secon ...

Goshomotsu ["Books"]

Kashiwaraya Takesuke [produced by].

Ōsaka: Kashiwaraya Takesuke, [ca. late Edo (1830-40s?)].

A woodblock-printed advertisement for the Osaka-based bookseller Kashiwaraya Takesuke, a firm which was active from the mid-seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century. The leaf advertises Chinese books, Japanese books, scriptures, "sto ...

Grand Concert Parisien, Rentree de Mme Bonnaire [...] 

[Concert Parisien (produced by)].

[Paris: Concert Parisien, 1890?]. 

A chirimen (crepe paper) poster advertising various acts at the Concert Parisien. One of the acts is the famous cafe performer Yvette Guilbert (1865-1944), who joined the Concert Parisien around 1889 after leaving the caf&ea ...

 Hibiki ["Reverberations"]

[Sugiura, Hisui (designed by)].

[Kyōto: Fushimi Yamamoto-jō, ca. Shōwa period (1930-60s)].

A set of five plates illustrated with a motif designed in 1932 by famed graphic designer and artist Sugiura Hisui (1876-1965) for the cigarette brand Hibiki. The set comes with one of the original cigarette packages (flattened) featu ...

"趣味のコクテール"

Momose, Susumu [text by].

Tōkyō : Kinseidō , Shōwa 8 [1933]. 

One of the earliest Japanese cocktail books, containing information on the history of cocktails, notes on mixing liquors, illustrations of implements used in bartending, and, of course, many cocktail recipes.

Original boards, minor wear to spine. ...

Tsutsumimono Orikata Hinagata ["Examples of Ways to Fold Envelopes"]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. Meiji period (1868-1911)?].

A collection of 54 samples of papers folded in specific ways for various occasions. Rules for the correct pre ...

Kokkei Retsuden ["Biographies of Jesters"]

[Sima, Qian (original text by)]; Hamamura, Zōroku II [owned and/or copied by].

[Hyōgo?], Kansei 12 [1800]. Manuscript, on woodblockprinted stationery.

A kanbun rendering in manuscript of Guji Liezhuan ("The Biographies of Jesters"), volume 126 of the Shiji ("Records of the Grand Historian") by Sima Qian (c. 145-8 ...

Jurin Shomoku ["Catalogue of Works from the Ranks of Confucian Scholars"] 

[Compiler unidentified].

[Japan, ca. Meiji to Taishō period (1880-1910s)?]. In manuscript.

A manuscript catalogue listing texts composed or edited by Japanese Confucian and Neo-Confucian philosophers including but not limited to Hayashi Razan (Dōshun, 1583-1657), Hayashi Gahō ( ...

Kaika Shindai Toppyō Shiwa ["Outrageous Poems and Stories: New Titles for a Civilised Age"]

Ryūsuitei, Tanekiyo [text by]; Seisei [Kawanabe], Kyōsai [illustrated by]. 

Tōkyō: Ryūshindō ... [et al.], Meiji 13 [1880]. 

A complete set of this collection of humorous poems illustrated with comical and risqué scenes by Kyōsai. The books are d ...

Kokkei Ana-sagashi [Funny Flaw-Finding]

[Utagawa], Yoshimori [illustrated by].

[Tōkyō]: Iseshō [Iseya Shōnosuke], [1864].

A comical woodblock print by Utagawa Yoshimori (1830-1885), introducing seven character flaws across two scenes. The nishiki-e, number five of an indeterminate number of prints in Yoshimori's Kokkei Ana-sagashi series, describes ch ...

Kokkei Jitsuwa ["Amusing True Tales"] = A Foreigner's Blunders in Japan

Eastlake, F. Warrington [text by]; [translator unidentified].

Tōkyō : Kanasashi Horyudo, Meiji 36 [1903].

A collection of nineteen amusing stories of embarrassing cultural and linguistic blunders made in Japan by the author, Frederick Warrington Eastlake (1856-1905). Eastlake, an ...

Kokkei Usaharashi ["Humorous Distractions"]

Itō, Kyōtō ... [et al.] [text by]. 

Tōkyō: Kokkeidō, Meiji 15 [1882]. 

Issue seven of Kokkei Usaharashi, a magazine of short stories and kyōka, haiku, and dodoitsu poems. The publishing house that produced the magazine, Kokkeidō, was owned by Akiyama Buemon (d. 1900), a pupil of Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and ...

Kyōji Kozaiku no E, Oteasobi Mono Shinajina [Stationer's Goods for Intricate Handiwork, Playthings, and so on]

Kyōjiya Hikobē-ten [produced by]. 

Kyōto: Kyōjiya Hikobē-ten, [ca. late Edo period (1800-50s?)].

An advertisement for goods produced by a kyōjiya - a specialist in mounting hanging scrolls and installing interior screens but also, as thi ...