Many woodcut illus. 159 folding leaves. Five parts in one vol. Oblong 8vo, orig. dark blue thick wrappers (wrappers rubbed), orig. block-printed title label on upper cover (label rubbed & soiled), orig. stitching. Kyoto, Edo, & Osaka: Hishiya magobei et al., 1859.

A late Japanese edition of one of the earliest Chinese collections of texts on horse medicine. Our book stems from a “late 14th-century compilation [which] does contain genuine works from earlier times. This is the Simu anji ji (Collections for Pacifying Stallions when Administering Flocks), published in 1384. Judging from internal evidence, most of its components are apparently... More

Many finely drawn illustrations in brush, ink, & colors. Scroll (285 x 9310 mm.), 23 joined sheets (some inoffensive worming, carefully repaired). Japan: copied before 1857.

A finely illustrated scroll, created in the witty and refined realistic style of Yamato-e and Ukiyo-e brush work, depicting the route taken — a distance of about 4 km. — by pleasure-seekers from Ryogoku Bridge to Shin Yoshiwara, the center of prostitution in the city of Edo. By the 18th century, it was the home to some 1750 women. This was an extremely busy section with a strong commercial tradition in what is today’s... More

50 panels (pages) of stiff paper board, including four panels (pages) of text. 8vo (orihon, 287 x 208 mm.), orig. silk cover over stiff boards (silk a little worn). [Osaka]: from final page of album (in trans.): afterword dated “Spring 1845.”

An important discovery: a manuscript album of the magnificent osteology paintings of the human body, apparently drawn by Bunken Kagami himself, along with his own extensive annotations in black sumi ink. According to the manuscript label on the old wrapper in which this album is found, these are the original drawings and texts by Bunken Kagami (1755-1819), for his... More

15 brush & black ink drawings pasted-in and 11 brush & ink drawings directly painted on the scroll (see below). With text on inside & outside of scroll. Siddham script used in the scroll. Scroll (330 x 12,130 mm.), wooden core roller. [Japan]: from recto of scroll at end: “Tenth day of the eighth month of the fourth year of Karyaku [1329].”

This handscroll is part of a larger Japanese work of Buddhist scrolls known as Kakuzensho [Collected Notes of Kakuzen], one of the two major collections of ritual texts from the period (see Richard Bowing, The Religious Traditions of... More

Wooden board with thick frame (1360 x 650 x 70 mm.), orig. metalwork pieces on sides & corners, with orig. metal fittings on top to facilitate hanging perpendicularly outside the shop. Both sides carved with characters of the same text, one side artfully carved in sosho tai (a calligraphic cursive script), the other side finely carved in gyosho tai (a semi-cursive script), with furigana reading marks. Characters painted with black pigment & highlighted in gold lacquer. [Japan]: date of manufacture of the board is engraved on one of the cornerpieces (in trans.): “February 1804” by “kazarishi Kinjiro Kamiya” (“ornamental metalwork... More

Woodcut illus. (five are double-page). .5, 13, .5 (ads); .5 (ads), 17, .5; .5 (ads), 14, .5 folding leaves. Three vols. 8vo, orig. green patterned semi-stiff wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Kyoto: Honya Juemon, [1789].

First edition and very rare; this work was written as a result of the devastating Great Kyoto Fire, which broke out on 7 March 1788 and lasted several days. It caused serious damage, including the destruction of the Imperial Palace and the Nijo-jo Castle. The fire so shocked the bakufu that senior councillor Sadanobu Matsudaira was sent to Kyoto to... More

10 black & white illus. 4to, printed wrappers, staple-bound. Nagoya: Akira Ikeda Gallery, 1988.

An uncommon On Kawara catalogue, it presents an extremely rare consecutive week of the artist’s Date Paintings (5-11 April, 1987). Begins with an essay by Kikuko Amagasaki (“On Kawara: Seeing and Reading”), in Japanese and English, and illustrates all ten paintings shown, all of which were executed in 1987. At the end, there is a list of the works displayed and a bibliography. This was Kawara’s third solo show with Akira Ikeda, his first took place in 1983.

From Amagasaki’s essay: “DATE PAINTING is different in... More

Many illus. Unpaginated. Four vols. Large 4to (280 x 215 mm.), orig. gray printed wrappers, titles on spines, housed in publisher’s cardboard box with orig. printed labels on outside & inside. Köln: Buchhandlung Walther König, 1992.

The scarce facsimile of On Kawara’s I Went, I Met, I Read, and Journal series for the year 1969, published by Walther König on the occasion of Kawara’s receiving the Kunstpreis Aachen. Kawara (29,771 days, i.e., 1932-2014) centered his artistic practice on the documentation of daily life: where he went, the people he met, and what he read. These notes were then compiled into... More

18 woodcut illus. (several color-printed). 23; 25 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo, orig. yellow wrappers (wrappers a little soiled), new stitching. [Japan]: Preface dated “1851,” published in 1852.

First edition and very rare. Kikuchi (fl. 1848-64), was responsible for starting a new age of Japanese veterinary medicine (see Alexander Kast, “Johannes Ludwig Janson, Professor of Veterinary Medicine in Tokyo in 1880-1902“ in Acta med-hist Adriat (2010); 8 (1), p. 116). Before this work, all books on veterinary medicine published in Japan were either entirely dependent on Korean or Chinese traditions or were mere translations of Dutch texts that had passed... More

An album in one accordion volume with 50 finely hand-painted double-page illustrations of kimono. Large 8vo (270 x 190 mm.), orig. decorated semi-stiff boards, title label on upper cover “Kyo moyo gojusshu” (trans.: “Bunsei era [1818-29] Kyoto style patterns 50 varieties”). N.p.: n.d. [Japan: ca. 1820].

This album contain 50 beautiful and highly-skilled hand-painted double-page illustrations, in rich and unfaded colors, of kimono, for various seasons and ceremonies. The endpapers have been decorated in a most discrete and unusual way.

In fine condition. More

One full-page woodcut. .5, 29, .5; 15.5 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo, orig. blue wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper cover, later decorated wrappers, later stitching. From the colophon at end of Vol. II: Edo, Kyoto & Osaka: Hanabusaya Heikichi et al., 1812.

[with]:

—. Haru nanakusa ko [Thoughts about Seven Herbs in Spring]. Three full-page woodcuts & nine smaller woodcuts in the text. .5, 36 folding leaves. 8vo, orig. blue wrappers as above, later decorated wrappers, later stitching. From the colophon: Edo: Yamashiroya Sahei, 1814.

First editions, a rare complete set, of these two works, which... More

68; 68; 75; 80; 66 folding leaves. Five vols. Oblong 8vo, orig. wrappers (rather tired & rubbed), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Kyoto: Yao Ichibei, 1692.

An early bibliography of Japanese printed books; essentially a Books in Print, it was the principal guide to the subject for two centuries. “By the middle of the seventeenth century the flood of publications was so great that there was a perceived need for information and guidance, and it was provided by the booksellers’ catalogues known as shojaku mokuroku.”–Kornicki, The Book in Japan, pp. 176-77. The first printed shojaku mokuroku... More