25 finely color-printed double-page woodcuts. 25.5; 15; 21.5 folding leaves. Three vols. 8vo, orig. semi-stiff wrappers, orig. block-printed title-slips on upper covers, new stitching. [Edo]: 1853-54.

First edition of this finely illustrated book, which rarely appears complete in all three volumes. The “Kyōka Edo Hanabi Senryō has sub-titles that show the sort of specialization that was associated with the three leading Utagawa artists. Volume One by Hiroshige, entitled ‘Nihonbashi Section,’ consists mainly of views of central Edo, figures, in some prints, threading their way through the hanging curtains of calligraphy showing the second floor of a brothel; Volume Two, by... More