Taisei shinshafu 大成真写譜 [Detailed & Accurate Images of Plants & Animals].
Two full-page & 50 double-page color-printed woodcuts. 30.5; 28 folding leaves. Two vols. Large 8vo, orig. semi-stiff wrappers, orig. title slips on upper covers, new stitching. Osaka: Shibakawa Mataemon 芝川又右衛門, 1888.
First edition of this beautifully illustrated natural history book. It is rare: WorldCat 673623988 lists only the National Diet Library copy. Kondō (fl. 1830-50), a student of the prominent Kyoto painter Kishi Ganku (1756-1838), became well known by the early 1830s and was mentioned in the Heian Jinbutsu Shi edition (a Japanese Who’s Who of prominent people). Kondō’s art was acknowledged to have surpassed that of his... More