[Collection of nineteen fan prints]

[Shōji], Chikushin [illustrated by].

[Japan, ca. mid- to late-Meiji period (1870s-1890s?)].

A collection of nineteen sensu fan designs by Shōji Chikushin (1854–1936), a leading pupil of the celebrated artist Shibata Zeshin. Most, if not all, are woodblock printed, and many are enhanced with metallic pigments. One d ...

[Gyofu (Fisherman)]

[Yamamoto], Kanae [illustrated by]; [Hashimoto, Okiie (printed by)].

[Japan: Hashimoto Okiie, 1960].

A 1960 memorial edition printing of Fisherman by pioneering sōsaku hanga artist Yamamoto Kanae (1882–1946). The Cleveland Museum of Art provides the following description of the original work:

"This modest pr ...

[Otokodate Jūnin-zoroi (Ten Chivalrous Men)]

[Toyohara], Kunichika [illustrated by].

[Edo (Tōkyō)]: Izutsuya [Shōkichi], Keiō Gannen [1865].

A selection of five prints from Toyohara Kunichika's Otokodate Jūnin-zoroi (Ten Chivalrous Men), a ten-print series portraying leading kabuki actors as famous otokodate, the gallant commoners of Edo popular fict ...

[Untitled album of tipped-in advertisements, labels, and ephemera]

[Compiler illegible].

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

An album of approximately 150 tipped-in woodblock-printed advertisements, hikifuda (flyers), labels, and other ephemera, largely dating from the Edo period. Particularly prominent are labels for sweets and other foods, ...

[Untitled collection of booksellers' tickets, book-binders' labels, and ex-libris]

[Compiler unidentified].

[Compiled in Japan, ca. 1930s?].

A collection of approximately 120 ex-libris and 120 booksellers' tickets and bookbinders' labels from around the world, with a particularly striking geographical range: booksellers and binders from Gla ...

[Untitled hangi (woodblock) for a large surimono]

Tōgaku [illustrated by].

[Japan, ca. late Edo period (1840s-1850s)?].

A woodblock used to print a surimono for a small group of sponsors (possibly artists or poets) in the late Edo period. The curtain illustrated at the top of the print and the presence of two family crests suggest a link with the theatre. ...

[Untitled katazome print on papermaking]

[Artist unidentified].

[Japan, ca. mid-Shōwa period (1950s-1960s)?].

A colour stencil-printed montage depicting scenes from traditional papermaking villages. The images show papermaking tools and sheets of paper drying in the sun, accompanied by a Japanese poem on the winter process of making washi (Japanese paper). ...

[Untitled manuscript handscroll on auspicious measuring techniques]

[Scribe unidentified].

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

A manuscript handscroll containing information on inzu (hand gestures symbolising the teachings and vows of the Buddha), followed by material on geomancy and divination. Twenty-three hand symbols are illustr ...

[Untitled manuscript of fortress diagrams]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. Edo period]. In manuscript.

A manuscript handbook on Japanese castle planning and military engineering from the Edo period. The volume contains numerous nawabari (castle layout plans), together with diagrams and annotations illustrating moats (hori), sewage and drainage cha ...

[Untitled oil painting]

Broadhurst, Florence [painted by].

[Australia, ca. 1920-50s?].

A signed oil painting by Australian artist Florence Broadhurst (1899-1977) of the "red sand-stone hills near Alice Springs", accompanied by a letter from the artist to a Japanese man (Mr. Kawasaki) who had ordered the painting in Brisbane. Broadhurst visited (and may hav ...

[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 ...

[Untitled painting]

[Yoshizawa, Renzaburō (attributed to)].

[Japan, ca. early Shōwa period (late 1930s-1940s)]. Oil painting.

A painting featuring a mother and her baby believed to have been rendered by the illustrator Yoshizawa Renzaburō (1893-1967). Yoshizawa was a Western-style painter who studied under Kuroda Seiki (1866-1924) and was prolific in produ ...

[Untitled set of woodblock-printed illustrations designed by Shibata Zeshin]

[Shibata], Zeshin [illustrated by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. 1870s-1880s?].

A set of three colour woodblock-printed sheets featuring illustrations by the celebrated artist Shibata Zeshin (1807–1891). One depicts the Shichifukujin (Seven Lucky Gods) enjoying some d ...

[Untitled tsuba]

[Unidentified craftsperson].

[Japan: workshop unidentified, ca. Edo to early Meiji period (18th to mid-19th century)?].

A fascinating iron tsuba (sword guard) for a katana, forged in the late Edo to early Meiji period and decorated with books, a scroll, and flowering plants. One side depicts the fronts of the books and scroll, while the re ...

[Untitled woodblock print of an Ichikawa family kabuki actor]

[Katsukawa], Shunjō [illustrated by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. An'ei to Tenmei period (1778-1787)].

A hosoban woodblock print by the Edo period artist Katsukawa Shunjō (active c. 1778-1787), possibly depicting the kabuki actor Ichikawa Monnosuke II as Aoto Gorō. The figure stands ...

[Yūgiri]

[Shima], Seien [illustrated by].

[Tōkyō: Dai Chikamatsu Zenshū Kankōkai, 1923?].

A large (dai-ōban) woodblock print by the prominent painter Shima Seien (1892–1970), depicting Yūgiri, the courtesan heroine of Chikamatsu Monzaemon's Yūgiri Awa no Naruto. The print was originally issued with the sixteen-volume Dai Chikamatsu Zenshū (T ...

"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 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 ...

[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. ...

[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 ...

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 ...

Atago-yama no Zu [Illustration of Atago Hill]

Kobayashi, Kiyochika [illustrated by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. Meiji 11 (1878)].

An early example of a kōsen-ga (light-ray picture) by Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915), this view from the summit of Atago Hill looks out across Tokyo toward the bay. In the foreground, a man in Western dress sits smokin ...

[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 ...

[Bijin no Kaisuiyoku (A Beautiful Woman at the Beach)]

[Terasaki], Kōgyō [illustrated by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. mid Shōwa period (1950s-1970s)?].

A woman enjoys a sunny day out at the beach in this woodblock print after a design by Terasaki Kōgyō (1866–1919). The original image appeared as a kuchi-e (frontispiece) in Bungei Kurabu maga ...

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 ...

Chiyo no Nishiki [Brocades of a Thousand Generations]

Taguchi, Bairei [illustrated by].

Kyōto: Toyamadō, Meiji 33 [1900].

Volume one (of two) of this colour woodblock-printed zuan series by Taguchi Bairei, a Kyoto-based nihonga painter active in both fine and applied arts. The volume features twenty-five creative designs, many of which use metallic pigme ...

Dai Nippon Bussan Zue [Products of Greater Japan]

[Utagawa], Hiroshige [III] [illustrations by].

Nihonbashi, [Tōkyō ]: Ōkura Magobē, [Meiji 10 (1877)].

An album of thirty woodblock-printed scenes depicting local products from across Japan, from pottery, silkworms, and seaweed to tobacco, soy sauce, and textiles, and the people involved in their productio ...

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)?].

Daishō Koyori Te-asobi: Mukashi Arishi Jūnikagetsu [Hand-play with Big and Small Twisted Paper Strings: The Twelve Months of Olden Times]

Baiso [created by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. early Meiji period (1860-80s)?].

Popular in the Edo and Meiji periods, daishō goyomi were calendars that revealed through picture-puzzles which month ...

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 ...

[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 × ...