Eight double-page color-printed woodcut illus., luxuriously heightened with gold, metallic dusts, & embossing. One leaf of preface (blank verso pasted onto upper cover, nine folding leaves, one leaf of postface (blank recto pasted to lower cover). 8vo (orihon), orig. blue patterned wrappers with waves (rubbed), orig. block-printed title slip on upper cover (slip a little frayed). Edo: Juzaburo Tsutaya, 1789.

First edition of perhaps the greatest of all Japanese illustrated books. “Even among Japanese books, the ‘Shell Book’ must be considered remarkable, hardly another has quite the same concinnity of subject, text and illustration…Its title is a poetic one that strikes the... More