Two vols. Small folio (363 x 242 mm.), modern yellow-green silk brocade over boards, endpapers in each volume with speckled gold. [Japan: n.d.].

Each of the 24 beautifully rendered double-page paintings in these two albums bears the signature “Kenzan,” although this appears not to be his autograph signature. In the first volume, his seal of “Ogata Kenzan” is stamped, and in the second volume the seal used is that of his artist name, “Shinsei.”

Ogata (1663-1743), was a painter and one of the greatest ceramicists of the Tokugawa era, famous for the skill of his brushstrokes. He was the younger brother of... More