36 finely color-printed full-page woodcuts. 40; 53.5 folding leaves. Two vols. Large 8vo, orig. pale-blue patterned wrappers, orig. block printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Tokyo: 1825.

First edition of Masayoshi’s final book. Kitao (1764-1824), was a painter and print artist who trained under the color-print master Kitao Shigemasa. Kitao then worked as an ukiyo-e artist and later became official painter to the daimyo of Tsuyama. During this period, he worked in the Kano style, using the name Kuwagata Keisai. During his period of activity as an ukiyo-e artist, Kitao Masayoshi produced mainly novelette illustrations. After 1794, however, when he became painter... More