Frontis. & eight finely colored lithographed plates (one folding). 49; 38 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers (covers with the slightest worming), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Yokohama: Bararo, 1875.

First edition in Japanese of this classic book on sex, reproduction, and contraception. It was the first book based on Western medicine devoted to these subjects to be published in Japan. Enormously popular, it went through many later editions and imitators.

First published in New York in 1859, The Book of Nature; Containing Information for Young People Who Are Thinking of Getting Married offered succinct... More

8vo (218 x 158 mm.), orig. silk-covered boards, gold label on upper cover, paintings pasted on gold-flecked paper over stiff boards. [Japan]: late Edo or Meiji era.

A very fine album of 12 paintings (the well-known “set of 12“ format) of women’s vulvas, mostly with penises inserted. Many of the scenes are obviously post-coital. The details of the pubic hair and sexual organs are very beautifully painted in vivid colors. One of the images depicts a very young woman masturbating, and another shows a man’s hand stimulating his partner.

In fine condition, preserved in an attractive silk brocade patterned chitsu... More

Scroll on paper (330 x 4680 mm.), with seven scenes in brush & ink and color washes, gold-flecked endpapers, gold-flecked borders throughout, silk brocade on outside of endpapers, silver-flecked paper on verso of scroll, wooden core roller. [Japan: late Edo].

A remarkable erotic scroll depicting the visit of a group of traveling Buddhist priests to a roadside inn, where they have much and varied sex with each other and the inn’s female employees, who supplemented their incomes as prostitutes. There are seven scenes:

1. The first scene depicts two young Buddhist priests, one a younger assistant, with walking sticks. They... More

Scroll (300 x 4150 mm.), with pale green silk borders & endpapers, wooden core roller. [Japan]: n.d. but probably early Edo.

This is a fine example of an erotic scroll, anonymously painted as usual but with great skill. The scroll contains ten scenes of men (sometimes samurai) and women engaged in various sexual activities. Two of the scenes are threesomes, one of which shows a young samurai copulating with two older women. The hairstyles of both the women and men are typical of the pleasure courts of the early Edo period.

Erotic paintings in Japan have a long tradition, established... More

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... 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... 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

Vol. I: Illustrated “title-page,” one double-page woodcut with foldouts to form a four-panel diptych, with the addition of a “trick super flap” depicting three female genitalia (young woman, mistress, & wife), six double-page woodcuts, & two single-page woodcuts, all color-printed; & three double-page black & white woodcuts. Vol. II: Illustrated “title-page,” five double-page woodcuts, & two single-page woodcuts, all color-printed; & four double-page black & white woodcuts. Vol. III: Illustrated “title-page,” four double-page woodcuts, & two full-page woodcuts, all color-printed; & three black & white double-page woodcuts. All leaves have color-printed borders. .5, 1 folding leaf of preface (color-printed), 13... 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... More

A total of 17 panels with color-printed woodcuts (one double-page & one four panels wide). Oblong 12mo (70 x 84 mm.), orig. wooden boards, orig. purple silk title label (but no title!) on upper cover. [Japan]: late 19th century.

A very rare kind of shunga, this is an example of a mitate, an “appropriation of a classical source…then used to portray the modern, urban demi-monde.”–C. Andrew Gerstle, “Shunga and Parody” in Timothy Clark et al., eds., Shunga. Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art (British Museum: 2013), p. 335.

In this shunga, the appropriation is the tea ceremony. The... More

Full-page color-printed frontis. (in Vol. II) & 12 fine double-page colored-printed woodcuts. 17.5; 18.5 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo, orig. semi-stiff boards, woodblock-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. [Japan, probably Edo]: 1824 or 1836.

First edition of this rare deluxe erotic work; we find no copy in WorldCat (but there is a copy at the Smithsonian). The artist, Yanagawa (active ca. 1820s-late 1850s), who also used the name Yoshinobu Koikawa, studied under Shigenobu I (1787-1832). Following the death of his teacher, he took his name and began signing his works as Shigenobu II.

This beautifully printed... More