"健胃強神　古加葡萄酒"

Yokohama: Meiji-ya, Meiji 27 [1894].

Tonic Coca Wine was a popular drink in Europe in the late 19th century, and, as can be seen from the images of medals in the illustration above, won numerous awards at expositions. The concoction is advertised here as a French-made must-have for the healthconscious buyer: a "strengthener of the entire sys ...

Tōsei Karitaku Saiken Kagami ["Mirror of a Guide to Temporary Lodgings"]

Chōkarō [Ochiai/Utagawa], Yoshiiku [illustrated by].

[Edo (Tōkyō)]: [Ōtaya] Takichi, Bunkyū 2 [1862].

A woodblock print featuring an illustration of a courtesan and child and a ranking of courtesans of the Nakagawa pleasure house, designed by Ochiai (Utagawa) Yoshiiku (1833-1904). Ka ...

Treatise on Silk and Tea Culture and Other Asiatic Industries Adapted to the Soil and Climate of California

Kendo, T. A.

San Francisco: A. Roman & Co., 1870.

A detailed description of the processes of tea cultivation and sericulture by the Japanese immigrant T.A. Kendo. By mid-1869, "[s]everal hundred Japanese were reported settling with the intention ...

Tenji Ōsaka Mainichi = The Braille Mainichi

Nakamura, Kyōtarō [edited and printed by].

Ōsaka: Ōsaka Mainichi Shinbunsha, Taishō 12-16 [1923-1927].

Two issues - the November 8th issue from Taishō 12 (issue 79) and a special New Year's issue from Taishō 16 (issue 242) - of The Braille Mainichi, one of Japan's earliest braille newspapers. Both issues ...

[Two untitled sketchbooks by an amateur artist]

Tanaka, Yūtai [illustrated by].

Ōsaka, Shōwa 11-15 [1936-1940]. In manuscript.

Two sketchbooks of stunning landscapes in pencil and watercolours by Tanaka Yūtai, an amateur Yōga (Western-style) artist. Most of the illustrations, which depict factories, ports, ships, people, and landscapes in and around Osak ...

[Japan, Shōwa 12 (1936)?]. Manuscript.

A letter in morse code to a Mr. Shimizu Ichirō of Mie Prefecture. The content is unknown, but the sender seems to have been a field army soldier fighting in the Second SinoJapanese War.

Two manuscript leaves with original opened envelope, lightly stained. 22.7 x 17.3 cm.

Ukiyo Karakuri Seiyō Megane ["The Machinations of the Floating World Through Western Lenses"]

Oka, Jōki [Kawahara Eikichi] [text by], Kanagaki, Robun [proofread by]; Seisei [Kawanabe], Kyōsai [illustrated by]. 

[Tōkyō]: Bankyūkaku, [preface dated Meiji 6 (1873)].

The complete first series (all published) of a little-known collaboration between Robun, ...

[Untitled album of copperplate-printed illustrations]

[Compiler unidentified]. 

[Japan: publisher/s unidentified, ca. late Meiji period (1905-1915?)].

An album of 86 tipped-in copperplate-printed illustrations of famous locations around Japan. Many of the landscapes, among them Mt. Fuji, Kamakura, and Nara, are provided with captions and rendered ...

[Untitled album of surimono] 

[Utagawa], Kunisada, [Shibata], Zeshin ... [et al.] [illustrated by].

[Japan, ca. late Edo to early Meiji period (1820-70s?)]. 

An album featuring 34 tipped-in surimono (privately commissioned woodblock prints) produced in the Edo and Meiji periods. The examples include poetry-themed haikai surimono illustrated with ...

[Untitled album of tipped-in photographs of the San Francisco Japanese Tea Garden]

[Hagiwara, Gorō (compiled by?)].

[San Francisco, ca. 1930s]. 

An album containing sixteen large tipped-in monochrome photographs captured around the 1930s of the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. The verso of the upper wrapper of the album bears the signat ...

[Untitled book of hand-sewn amulets]

[Creator unidentified]. 

[Japan, ca. late Edo period (1800-60s?)].

A small but lovingly assembled book of 25 hand-sewn semamori designs. Semamori or semon ("back crests" or "back-protectors") are designs traditionally sewn into children's kimono to prevent the soul from leaving the body or evil spirits from att ...

[Untitled collection of six uchiwa-e]

Suzuki, Kiitsu, [Shibata], Zeshin, [Takahashi], Ōshin [illustrated by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late Edo to early Meiji period (1850-70s?)].

A collection of six woodblock-printed uchiwa-e (fan prints) featuring seasonal plants and flowers including irises, maple leaves, and gourds. The prints featuring iris ...

[Untitled fan print]

[Kamisaka], Sekka [illustrated by].

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

A fan-shaped woodblock print featuring a spool of (silk) thread, a silk moth, three silkworm cocoons, and mulberry leaves, designed by the acclaimed Neo-Rinpa artist Kamisaka Sekka (1866–1942). 

&n ...

[Untitled painting]

[Yoshizawa, Renzaburō (painted by?)].

[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 albums depicting military figures from Chinese history]

[Creator unidentified].

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

A set of two manuscript albums containing portraits and brief biographies of thirty-six military generals, military strategists, or politicians from Chinese history. Some of the figures included are ...

[Untitled surimono depicting Urashima Tarō and a turtle]

Yanagawa, [Shigenobu] [illustrated by].

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

A Meiji to Taishō-era printing of this shikishi-ban surimono illustrated by Yanagawa Shigenobu (1787-1832), one of Katsushika Hokusai's pupils. The charming woodblock print, pa ...

[Unidentified Awa Shōami school craftsperson].

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

A stunning iron tsuba (sword guard) for a katana sword, forged in the late Edo to early Meiji period and decorated with golden books using traditional nunome-zōgan cloth-weave inlay techniques. The tsuba comes with a ninteis ...

[Untitled work on silk]

[Artist's signature illegible].

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

A simple but elegant painting on silk of a beautiful woman, from around the early twentieth century.

One illustration hand-painted on a silk scroll. A few creases and marks, extremities frayed in places. Na ...

Usokurabe mitate hyōbanki

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late Edo period (mid-19th century)].

A mitate hyōbanki or banzuke of oft-used lies. The 'winners' of the ranking are "the young person who says they hate women" and "the old person who says they want to die quickly" - these people are presumably accused of telling ...

Bertrand [illustrated by].

[Spain: publisher unidentified, ca. 1876].

A Western interpretation of famed publisher Tsuruya Kiemon's bookstore in Tōriaburachō, based on an illustration of the same shop from the multivolume Edo Meisho Zue (ca.1834).

One loose leaf, possibly removed from a book by a previous owner. Light discolouration to&nbs ...

Watashi no Nankyoku Tanken-ki [My Account of the Antarctic Expedition]

Shirase, Nobu [text by].

Tōkyō: Kōkoku Seinen Kyōiku Kyōkai, Shōwa 18 [1943]. Third edition.

A re-titled and re-packaged edition of Shirase Nobu's Nankyoku Tanken published during wartime. This copy is from the third edition, printed less than six months after the first edition ...

"Yamadenai yama, kawadenai kawa: mitate sumo"

Nanritei [created by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late Edo period (mid-19th century)].

A ranking of words and names (often those of brands) ending with yama ("mountain") that are not themselves the names of mountains, and the same for rivers (kawa). Nanritei (1782-1860) was a yomihon and gesaku author ...

Yukihisa Isobe Exhibition

Isobe, Yukihisa [illustrated by].

Tōkyō: Tokyo Gallery, 1964.

A catalogue from an exhibition of works by Yukihisa Isobe (1935-) held in Tokyo in April of 1964. The card folder features four panels (three on the recto, one on the verso) that open to reveal scenes on loosely inserted cards. The cards can be removed from the outer ...

[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 ...

"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 ...

[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 ...

[A collection of practice paintings by a student artist]

[Illustrator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. Meiji period (1870-90s?)]. In manuscript.

A collection of 29 leaves of paintings of animals and people produced by a burgeoning artist for practice. The paintings are largely copied from artworks by notable artists including Miyagawa Chōshun (1682-1752) and Iwa ...

[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 ...

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 kabuki-themed haikai surimono]

[Shibata], Zeshin [illustrated by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, Meiji 14 [1881].

A surimono by acclaimed artist Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) featuring poems by kabuki actors and illustrated with an actor surrounded by wigs. The surimono was produced to celebrate the name-change (shūmei) of the actor Sawamura Hyakunosuke ...

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 ...

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 ...

[Set of movable type]

[Creator unidentified].

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

A small set of hand-cut wooden movable type, probably produced in the Meiji period. The faces of the ninety pieces measure approximately 6 x 6 mm, and all depict kanji characters. The wooden tray is thought to be original. The type was probably used to print books or ...

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 ...

[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 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 ...

Atagoyama no Zu ["View from Mt. Atago"]

Kobayashi, Kiyochika [illustrated by].

Ryōgoku, [Tōkyō]: Matsuki Heikichi, Meiji 11 [1878].

A colour woodblock-printed illustration designed by the artist Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915) of the view of Tōkyō from Mt. Atago. Kiyochika's characteristic use of shadows and areas of flat colour creates an image resona ...