[Untitled woodblock print]

[Artist unidentified].

Tōkyō: Shibakawado, [ca. Taishō period (1910-20s)?].

A woodblock-printed leaf featuring two designs for Christmas and New Years’ greeting cards. The cards may have been produced for Japanese people to send to English-speaking friends, or as souvenirs for foreign tourists to send back to friends in the ...

Nihonbashi, Tōkyō, and other locations : Maruya Shōten, Kawashima Shōten ... [et al.], ca. early 1900s.

A collection of six sample booklets containing a total of 128 tipped-in squares of beautiful real Japanese fabrics. These folding booklets would have been shown by scroll-mounters to customers, who would then pick fabrics to be used in the mountings of their scroll ...

"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 ...

"油町製本菜種黄表紙"

Ryūtei, Senka [Tanehiko II] [text by]; Utagawa, Sadahide [illustrated by].

[Tōkyō]: Tsuruya Kiemon, Tenpō 5 [1834].

A gōkan about which no research in Japanese or English has been located, but which may revolve around bookbinding or publishing. The publisher, Tsuruya Kiemon, was based in Tōriaburachō, the well-known "book street" me ...

[Japan, ca. late Edo to early Meiji period (1850-1870s)].

Semon ("back crests"), also known as semamori ("back-protectors" or "back amulets"), were designs sewn into children's kimono to prevent evil spirits from attacking them from behind or to prevent the soul from leaving the body. These two books feature a total of 76 designs hand-sewn through the paper with threa ...

[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 child's jinbaori coat decorated with peaches and crests]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. Edo period (17th to mid-19th century)?].

A child's decorative surcoat or overcoat for use outdoors, with kamon crests sewn on the back. The cute peach design on the front alludes to the popular tale of Momotaro, and this design and the jacket's size ...

Hiroshige, Andō ... [et al.] [illustrated by].

[Japan : publisher not identified, ca. 1920-40s].

A collection of seven colour woodblock-printed chirimen-e (crêpe-paper illustrations) printed in the Taishō to early Shōwa period, possibly earlier. The collection includes two large reproduced illustrations from Hiroshige's ‘Fifty-three Stations o ...

[Japan: publisher and creator unidentified, ca. early to mid Meiji period (1870-90s)].

A collection of fabric representations (oshi-e (押絵)) of characters from ukiyo-e. The title slips and lines of characters' clothes appear to have been cut out from woodblock-prints and laid onto various pasted-down fabrics to bring the characters to life. Some sections of the figur ...

[Japan, England, ca. 1923-1930]. In manuscript.

A collection of two letters and two postcards from Edmund Blunden to English bookseller J.S. Billingham, along with four postcards from Blunden's Japanese students to the same bookseller, and two blank postcards sent to Billingham by Blunden. Blunden was the Professor of English at the University of Tokyo from 1924 to 19 ...

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 ...

[An untitled manuscript on the Tokugawa administration]

[Author unidentified].

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

A manuscript on the Tokugawa shogunate's civil government system, previously owned by or prepared for the diplomat and eventual British Consul-General John Carey Hall (1844-1921). Hall, who was born in Northern Ireland, came ...

A walk through Japan, 1877

Goff, Lieutenant-Colonel [Robert Charles] [text by].

London: Printed by William Clowes and Sons, 1878.

A privately published record of an 1877 trip through Japan by Lieutenant-Colonel Go ...

[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 ...

Yoshū Mame Tengoku ["Foreign Liquor Heaven"]

Yoshū Mame Tengoku Henshū-bu [text by]; Yanagihara, Ryō hei [dust jackets designed by].

Tōkyō : Santorī, Shōwa 42-45 [1967-70].

A complete 36-volume set of the Yoshū Mame Tengoku series published by Suntory. The set of miniature books includes photographer Akiyama Shōtarō's Bijo Tori Monogatari ("A ...

[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 ...

Ranjin Tokoromi Gachirin Shinzu ["True Image of the Moon, as Observed by the Dutch"]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. mid to late Edo period (18th century to early 19th century)]. Manuscript on paper, mounted on fabric scroll.

A fanciful rendering of the face of the moon, complete with Western ships and explanatory text purporting that 'Westerners&# ...

[A manuscript report of the death of Uheiji]

Uno, Niemon, Ōwaki, Giuemon ... [et al.] [addressed to].

[Usuki, Bungo Province (current-day Ōita Prefecture)], Kyōhō 11 [1726]. Manuscript.

A document addressed to local officials of the Usuki clan in Bungo Province reporting that Uheiji, the son of Shio (a daughter of "Jirōemon" captured in Kanbun 7 (1667) for ...

[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 ...

Shujū Gi wo Mamorite Nan wo Manukaru ["A Master and Servant Observe Obedience to Their Duties and a Disaster is Averted"]

Ōju [Mizuno], Toshikata [illustrated by]; [Tominaga], Toshichika [corrected by].

Tōkyō: Tsuji Keiji: Fukyū sha, Meiji 21 [1888]. "Later printing".

Kōfu sake wo tachite issei no kuwauju to naru ["To become a world-famous scholar after renouncing alcohol"]

[Kobayashi], Toshikazu [illustrated by]; [Tominaga], Toshichika [corrected by].

Tōkyō: Tsuji Keiji: Fukyū sha, Meiji 21 [1888]. "Later printing".

&n ...

[Untitled Greeting Card]

[Minister of Communications].

Tōkyō: [Ministry of Communications], 1917.

An illustrated card in French from "Le Ministre des Communications du Japon", wishing the unidentified receiver a H ...

[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 "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 ...

亜墨利加國蒸氣車往来 [Amerika-koku Jōkisha Ōrai, “The Transit of an American Steam Locomotive”]

Issen [Utagawa], Yoshikazu [illustrated by].

[Tōkyō: Maruya Jinpachi, Bunkyū Gannen (1861)].

This eye-catching triptych of an American "steam train" is believed to be based on an image of the Japanese embassy arriving in 1860 in Washington, D.C., f ...

"亞墨利加洲内華盛頓府之景 銅板之寫生"

Issen [Utagawa], Yoshikazu [illustrated by].

[Tōkyō]: Maruya Jinpachi, [ca. Bunkyū Gannen (1861)].

A decidedly European depiction of Washington, purportedly based on an (asyet unidentified) copperplate engraving. A scarce aizuri-e of a foreign scene by Utagawa Yoshikazu (active ca. 1850–70), a pupil of Kuniyoshi (1 ...

[An Edo period omikuji box]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan: workshop unidentified, ca. mid to late Edo period (1700-1850s?)].

A lacquer box used for omikuji fortune telling, hand-crafted in the Edo period. Omikuji boxes, typically used at temples and shrines, contain bamboo strips, each of which is captioned by hand with a different 'level' of luck ...

[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 kibyōshi title panels]

Kyokutei, Bakin, Jippensha, Ikku, Santō, Kyōden ... [et al.] [original works authored by]; Katsukawa, Shuntei, Utagawa, Toyohiro ... [et al] [illustrated by].

[Edo (Tōkyō)]: Tsuruya Kiemon, Tsutaya Jūzaburō, Nishimura Yohachi ... [et al], [ca. mid-Edo period (1790-1830s?)].

A collection of 27 woodblock-pri ...

[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. ...

[An untitled folding object]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. Meiji period (1870-1910s?)].

An unusual folding object with eight small opening pockets or compartments, two slightly larger pockets, and one large pocket. An intriguing origami-adjacent object made for play or perhaps for storing small items.

One folding object, c ...

[Untitled kuchi-e print]

Sensai [Kobayashi], Eikō [illustrated by].

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

A 'collage' kuchi-e (frontispiece) by Sensai Eikō (1868-1933), feat ...

[A Sugoroku Game Featuring Various Animals]

Kokunimasa [illustrated by].

Tōkyō: Fukuda Kumajirō, Meiji 27 [1894].

A paper sugoroku game illustrated with various animals, by Kokunimasa. Kokunimasa was almost certainly Utagawa Kunimasa V (years of birth and death undetermined), who used the name Baidō Kokunimasa between 1889 and 1896. Many animals foreig ...

[An untitled surimono featuring poems by kabuki actors]

[Hasegawa], Sadanobu [II] [illustrated by]; Fukusuke, Tokizō, Danjurō ... [et al.] [poems by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. early Meiji period (1870-80s?)].

A surimono (woodblock-printed leaf) featuring twentytwo poems, seemingly all by kabuki actors, and an illustration of a flaming jewel by ...

[Japan]: Asahi Caramel, [ca. early Shōwa period (1930-50s)].

A set of four posters advertising Asahi Caramels.

Four leaves. Creases, light wear, small marks. Lacking string attachments. Each leaf measures approx. 39 x 13 cm.

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 ...

[Japan: maker unidentified, ca. mid-Meiji period (1880-1900)].

A paper envelope used as packaging for "Best Sugar", a product from an unknown manufacturer. The illustration has been woodblock-printed and the Japanese characters lithographically-printed. The use of Roman characters was considered a popular and stylish addition to advertisements in the Meiji period.

Bukkuman = Bookman

Tosho Kenkyūkai [produced by].

Tōkyō: Tosho Kenkyūkai, Shōwa 3 [1928].

The November 1928 issue (volume 2, issue 11) of Bookman, a monthly magazine for book lovers advertised as the "Ministry of Home Affairs monthly report on the delivery of books". Aside from numerous essays on books and authors, this issue features an illustration see ...

"親爺教育: ジグスとマギー, 第一輯"

McManus, George [created by].

Tōkyō : Asahi Shinbunsha, [Taishō 13 (1924)].

The first Japanese language collection of Bringing Up Father cartoons by American illustrator George McManus. Another collection (believed to be the last collection published in Japanese) was produced the following year. The book includes a pream ...

Ōsaka: Kōtō Saburō, Hisayama Yūkichi, Meiji 33 [1900].

Two woodblock-printed calendars for 1901, published in 1900 by two Osaka printers as advertisements for a rice store and a tuna store.

Two leaves. Chips to extremities, creases, and occasional small marks. 53 x 37.9 cm (left) and 53.5 x 35.4 cm (right).

Collection de Pelliot, Manuscrits de Touen-houang

[Transcriber/s and annotator/s unidentified].

[S.l.: s.n., ca. early 20th century].

Possibly a typescript draft of the catalogue of the Pelliot Collection of Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Uighur fragments and manuscripts discovered in China's Dunhuang caves (or 'Mogao Grottoes') by the French ...