Item ID: 5329 Kasen e sho [trans.: Pictures of Some of the Immortal Poets]. Busei KITA, Seikei YAMAMOTO, Artist, Author.
Kasen e sho [trans.: Pictures of Some of the Immortal Poets].

“An Attractive Colour-Printed Book of Poets”–Hillier

Kasen e sho [trans.: Pictures of Some of the Immortal Poets].

36 finely color-printed woodcut illus. in the text. 23 folding leaves. 8vo, orig. gold-flecked wrappers (rubbed), orig. printed title label on upper cover, new stitching. N.p.: Preface dated “1810.”

First edition of this finely illustrated work by Kita Busei (1776-1856), a student of Tani Buncho. It is the first masterpiece by Kita; Hillier, describes the present book as “an attractive colour-printed book of poets” (The Art of the Japanese Book, p. 640). The images of the 36 poets, each of which occupies two-thirds of a page, are finely printed in color using a series of woodblocks. The backgrounds are delicately tinted and the images of each poet are richly color-printed, employing different colors in a series of printing runs.

Outer margins with a small dampstain just touching the images, but a fine copy.

❧ Brown, Block Printing & Book Illustration in Japan, p. 119.

Price: $3,500.00

Item ID: 5329

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