Four double-page & nine full-page color-printed illus. and ten pages of text with background coloring. 31.5 folding leaves. Small 8vo, orig. semi-stiff patterned wrappers, new stitching. Osaka: Unkindō 雲錦堂, 1857.

An early printing of this beautifully illustrated book with considerable blind embossing. The text and the illustrations have been printed on thickish paper, leaving deep impressions and giving a 3-D appearance. The subject of this book is a famous Osaka courtesan, Shikishima, of the Shinmachi pleasure quarter. For many years she worked in the Kyōya “tea house,” until she married a lacquer artisan. The book portrays her as a symbol... More