An album in two accordion volumes with 33 finely hand-painted illustrations of kimono, each on a silk fabric panel (335 x 245 mm.), all within gold frames, mounted in two albums (365 x 270 mm.). Two vols. Large 4to, orig. patterned silk over boards. N.p.: n.d. [Japan: ca. 1868-1910].

These two albums contain 33 beautifully hand-painted illustrations, in rich and unfaded colors, of kimono, for various seasons and ceremonies. The endpapers of each volume are speckled with gold leaf.

In fine condition. More

[Japan]: May 1711.

This kosatsu (official wooden bulletin or notice board) provides an important historical reminder of the extraordinary risks to communities suspected of faith in Christ during the long era of the Kakure Kirishitan (Hidden Christians) in Japan. The communal — not just individual — risk was enormous. Authorities in every city displayed kosatsu in public spaces — mounted on a pole, hung at village government sites (of which ours shows evidence), or secured to a bigger structure located in strategic areas (crossroads, vicinity of bridges, harbors, etc.). They were generally inscribed with regulations, edicts, and notices.

Our Kirishitan... More

Thousands of pages of manuscript notes, pasted-in clippings of scholarly articles by him and others, photos, etc. China: 1920s-30s.

Before Japan’s defeat in the Second World War, Kobayashi Yasuo (1874?-1964) worked as an engineer for the South Manchuria Railway Company (known as mantetsu). This organization had been founded in 1905 upon Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War. It was nothing less than an organ of Japanese imperialism in northeastern China, controlling vital infrastructure — far exceeding the railroad connecting the major cities of the region — in what in 1931 became the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo. Mantetsu’s sphere of... More

Numerous very fine brush & ink illus. in the text & 52 stamped mon. 19 folding leaves (the first two leaves & the final leaf are blank). Large 8vo (292 x 210 mm.), orig. patterned wrappers, stitched as issued (stitching a little loose), gold-decorated endpapers. [Japan]: mid-Edo.

An uncommonly well-illustrated and interesting manuscript, which appears to be unpublished; our manuscript is a copy, with considerable variations, of the Buddhist priest Ningai’s “Koen [or “Kodo”] gangu,” which first circulated in manuscript about 1729. Ningai (1675-1747 or 1670-1752), was active in the Yonekawa ryu incense ceremony school in Kyoto. His “Koen gangu,”which... More

Nine double-page, one single-page, & several woodcut illus. in the text, all color-printed, and a number of black & white woodcuts throughout the text. One preliminary leaf pasted-down on the inside upper wrapper, 19 folding leaves, one leaf of ads at end pasted-down on the inside lower wrapper. Small 8vo, orig. wrappers decorated with the characters for “Kiraku” in hiragana, orig. block-printed title labels on upper cover, new stitching. “Ukiyo”: Kirakudo, [late Edo].

First edition of this playful parody of a serious sex manual, with illustrations by Koikawa (1821-1907), one of the leading shunga artists of the late Edo and... More

Numerous fine woodcut illus. (18 of which are finely handcolored). 48 (irregularly paginated); 33; 39; 26; 28, 3 folding leaves. Five vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers (some worming in upper margin of each vol.), orig. block printed title label on each upper cover, new stitching. Tokyo: Mankyudo Hanabusa Heikichi, [Preface dated 1810].

First edition of one of the three most important early Japanese books on the history and technique of Chinese and Japanese acupuncture. This work is very different from all earlier Chinese and Japanese books on the subject. For the first time, the illustrations are finely and realistically rendered and... More

Text by Koshoku Gaishi, a pen name for Hanagasa Bunkyo. 12 double-page & six single-page woodcuts, all color woodblock-printed. 17; 11; 10 folding leaves. Three vols. 8vo, orig. color-printed semi-stiff boards (boards rubbed & a little soiled), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers (titles faded away), new stitching. Edo: [1836].

First edition and rare; WorldCat lists only one copy, in Japan. Kuniyoshi (1798-1861), was “one of the great Ukiyo-e artists of the nineteenth century.”–Hillier, The Art of the Japanese Book, p. 890. Kuniyoshi also had a substantial output of erotic books.

This is an excellent example of a shunga... More

[Probably Kyoto: 1862 or shortly thereafter].

The opening of Japan by Perry caused tremendous political and economic turmoil and violence within the hitherto relatively peaceful country. The country was divided into two groups: the first supported the shogun and his cooperation with the Western nations and the second considered these changes a betrayal of traditional Japanese values and called for the emperor to unify the country.

Political assassinations became common on the streets of Kyoto. This manuscript describes and depicts a series of victims of assassination, most of whom were supporters of the shogun. They include Seiichiro Homma, Genba Ugo... More

[1] oblong leaf of explanatory text & 4 color woodcut plates (222 x 457 mm.), each signed & numbered by the artist, loose as issued, housed in orig. handmade paper wrapper, orig. publisher’s portfolio. Tokyo: Galerie Watari, 1980.

An extremely rare suite of four woodblock prints, all numbered and signed by Sol LeWitt (1928-2007). These prints were finely executed on Echizen-Kizuki-Hosho paper by the Adachi Institute in an edition of 40 copies (+ 10 A.P.). The same year, Shizuko Watari’s Galerie Watari also published a scarce LeWitt artist’s book with a slightly shortened title, All Four Part Combinations of Six... More

66 full-page woodcuts & a few woodcuts in the text. 37; 22 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo, orig. pale blue semi-stiff patterned wrappers, new stitching, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers (one label quite defective). From the colophon in Vol. II: Kyoto: Hayashi Ihei, 1756.

First Japanese edition of this classic painting book. Zhupu xiang lu was regarded as the medium’s major canon for the first half of the 14th century. No early Chinese edition has survived.

“Not all manuals were mediocre, however. In 1756 the Japanese edition of a bamboo manual by the Yuan master Li Kan, [the... More

23-33 characters per column; 6 columns per page. Text-block height: 230 mm. Eight vols. (190 x 8600; 10,000; 9300; 8200; 8900; 8600; 8000; 7000 mm.). Tall narrow 8vo, orig. semi-stiff dark blue boards (minor rubbing), orig. block-printed mica-dusted title labels on upper covers, each entitled “Shinpan Myohorengekyo” [“new [carved] boards for the Myohorengekyo”] & volume number. [Japan]: early to mid-Edo?

A very rare — apparently unrecorded — edition of the complete Lotus Sutra, handsomely carved throughout in hiragana, allowing those unskilled in reading kanji to study the text. The vast majority of sutra printed in early Japan were carved in... More

73; 60 folding leaves (pagination in Vol. II continued from Vol. I). Two vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers (wrappers rather worn), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers (frayed), new stitching. Kyoto: Hayashi Kuhei & Takemura Shinbei, 1699.

First edition of this valuable bibliography of Chinese encyclopedias or lei-shu (classified books); this is an important guide to the corpus of lei-shu.

The term “encyclopedia” is not used in the Western sense. Lei-shu “is the name given a genre of collectanea of literary and non-literary materials compiled in pre-modern Chinese history. Commonly translated ‘encyclopedia,’ lei-shu is more accurately rendered ‘classified book,’ from... More