Ten cards (181 x 50 mm.), all preserved in the orig. folded color-printed wrapper, entitled on upper panel Furyu e tanzaku [Elegantly Illustrated Tanzaku Cards]. [Japan: Meiji Era].

Ten erotic cards, issued together, each in the tanzaku ban format, and accompanied by their original color-printed wrapper. Tanzaku cards were popular in the Meiji era (1868-1912); see Rosina Buckland’s “Erotic Art of the Meiji Era (1868-1912)” in Timothy Clark et al., eds., Shunga. Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art (British Museum: 2013), pp. 454-55.

The upper panel of each is very finely color-printed with saturated inks, embossing, and rich use of metallic pigments... More

Seven double-page (one of which has flaps & folds out into a four-panel scene) and two single-page woodcuts, all finely color-printed, and nine double-page black & white woodcuts. One color-printed title-page pasted down on inner upper wrapper, 24 folding leaves. Small 8vo, orig. color-printed upper wrapper, with embossing, decorated lower wrapper, new stitching. [Edo]: Preface dated 1864.

First edition and very rare; we find no copy in WorldCat. The Preface was written by Tanekiyo Ryusuitei (1823-1907), using his pen name “Insuitei.”

Following one of the frequent fires in the famous pleasure quarters of Yoshiwara, often started by the prostitutes in an effort to free... 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 central Tokyo.

Our scroll is an early copy of the original scroll; we do not know if that earlier scroll still exists. It was created by Bunyo Tozaka (1783-1852), a prominent Nanga-style artist who studied with Buncho Tani and specialized in kachoga (pictures of flowers and butterflies). The author of the notes was Hirokata Yashiro (1758-1841), the influential historian of Japan and great book collector (he had more than 50,000 Chinese and Japanese books housed in a series of three buildings in Ueno, known at the Shinobazu Bunko). The beginning of our copied scroll depicts several boats holding men (including samurai) and women making their way along the Sumida River from Ryogoku Bridge to Shin Yoshiwara. They disembark at Kumagatado, adjacent to Asakusa Bridge. From there, the men — clearly samurai — mount rented horses (Daiden Horse Co., with very inadequate saddles) and continue their journey. There are images of high-ranking men with their faces hidden by large hats in order to conceal themselves. Their family crests on their kimono are also hidden. They pass through Raijin Gate (today’s Kaminarimon) which belongs to Tokyo’s oldest temple, Senso-ji. There is a merchant depicted along the side of the road, selling dumplings (the famous Yone manju). Finally, the samurai dismount and board small boats at an embankment to cross some wetlands at the Nihon zutsumi. They arrive at a commercial area called Doromachi (“Mud Town”) where the travellers wash their feet and tidy themselves before entering Shin Yoshiwara and all its pleasures. 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 early Meiji periods... More

One double-page woodcut illus. & numerous woodcut illus. in the text. 38 folding leaves. Small 8vo, orig. patterned wrappers (wrappers a little waterstained, some worming), orig. block-printed title label on upper cover, new stitching. Edo: Tsutaya Juzaburo, 1783.

First edition and very rare; this work is a guidebook, with poetic and allusory reviews, to the courtesans and brothels of the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter in Edo. This district served “as a kind of cultural salon where samurai and townsman culture could interact, and the quarter was able to transmit this culture to a wider world thanks to burgeoning links with the publishing industry.”–Ryoko Matsuba... More

One double-page black & white woodcut. 48 folding leaves. Small 8vo, orig. green wrappers (wrappers a little tired), orig. block-printed title label on upper cover (label soiled), new stitching. [Edo]: Preface dated 1778.

First edition of this rare sharebon, stories revolving around humor and entertainments in the pleasure quarters, most popular in the 1770s and 1780s. This novel, a real “tearjerker,” is one of the masterpieces about the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters (see Cecilia Segawa Seigle, Yoshiwara: The Glittering World of the Japanese Courtesan, p. 141). The novel was a blockbuster of its time, focusing on the irreconcilability of romantic love and societal norms... More

Eight double-page (of which six are color-printed) & four single-page (all color-printed) woodcuts. 15; 12; 14 folding leaves. Three vols. Small 8vo, orig. embossed & decorated semi-stiff boards, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. [Edo]: ca. 1844-47.

First edition of this fascinating shunga book; there is no copy in WorldCat. The artist of this work, using the pen name “Ikkyokusai maromaru,” is Kunimaro Utagawa (active 1850-75), who was a pupil of Kunisada Utagawa.

The story is a most interesting parody of the life of Asahina Saburo Yoshihide, the legendary Japanese warrior of the early 13th century. Asahina had superhuman strength, which he... More