[Collection of ephemera on female sumo wrestlers]

[Various creators].

[Japan, ca. Meiji to early Shōwa period (1880-1930s?)].

An archive relating to the activities of female sumo wrestlers in the late 19th to early 20th centuries. Women were banned by the government from sumo wrestling in 1926 despite centuries of participating in the sport. The ban on wom ...

[Collection of fourteen prints]

Sekino, Jun'ichirō, Azechi, Umetarō ... [et al.] [illustrated by].

[Yokohama]: Chikuhōdō, [ca. late Shōwa period (1980-90s?)].

A set of fourteen woodblock-printed designs in a variety of styles by Japanese artists including (but not limited to) Mabuchi Tōru (1920-1994), Maeda Masao (1904-1974), Sekino Jun'ichirō (191 ...

[Collection of gōkan envelopes] 

[Utagawa], Kunisada, [Utagawa], Toyokuni ... [et al.] [illustrated by].

[Japan: various publishers, ca. late Edo period (1850-60s)?]. 

A collection of 56 colour woodblock-printed fukuro (envelopes) produced for gōkan (illustrated serial novels). The majority of the fukuro in this collection were created for the no ...

[Collection of hand-painted patterns]

[Illustrator/s unidentified].

[Japan, ca. early Shōwa period (1930s)?].

A collection of 114 pattern designs for fabrics, hand-painted on paper and produced around the 1930s. Some of the patterns (possibly designed for yūzen dyeing) are bound together with paper ties, others are loose. Several (if not all) of the patte ...

Lyon: G. Véronnet, [ca. 1880s].

An advertisement for a theatrical event in Lyon featuring the Mysterious Men, Miss Nelly, Sir Robertson, and Doctor Méphisto, on flat (non-crêped) paper with decorative margins printed in Japan. The illustration features a woman and a child looking up at two cranes while an elderly man ties his shoelaces, missing the sig ...

Dai San-kai Kozeni-shū ["Third Collection of Ancient Coins"]

Shunka [produced by].

[Japan: Shunka, ca. Taishō to early Shōwa period (1920-30s)?].

A set of twelve woodblock-printed match labels featuring types of ginban - Japanese silver coins used in the Edo period. The text on each card records the year the coin was minted and/or the name of the type of ...

Danjo Shussan Takara no Yamairi ["Male and Female Birth: Entering the Treasure Trove"]

Mantei, Ōga [text by]; Ōju Seisei [Kawanabe], Kyōsai [illustrated by]. 

[Tōkyō]: Kodama Yakichi, Meiji 14 [1881]. 

Possibly one of the scarcest Kyōsai-Ōga creations, this allegorical map was doubtlessly inspired by the creators' collaboration on a single-sh ...

Deku no Bō ["Blockhead"]

[Kobayashi], Kiyochika [illustrated by]; Koppi, Dōjin [Nishimori, Takeki] [text by].

Tōkyō: Matsuki Heikichi, Meiji 27 [1894].

A fūshiga satirising China's loss of Port Arthur to the Japanese army, from Kiyochika's Hyakusen Hyakushō: Nihon Banzai ("Long Live Japan: One Hundred Victories, One Hundred Laughs") series of prin ...

Dōhan gashū ["Album of copperplate prints"]

[Illustrator unidentified].

[Japan: Naitō Den'uemon, ca. early to mid-Meiji period (1870-80s)].

An album of 94 tipped-in copperplate prints from Uchida Masao's 13-volume geography textbook Yochi shiryaku ("A Compilation of Geographical Knowledge"). The prints, which were based on images found in Western ...

Edo meibutsu: nishikie kōsaku ["The cultivation of brocade prints, a famous product of Edo"]

[Kitagawa], Utamarō [illustrated by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. early to mid Shōwa period (1930-60s)?].

A woodblock-printed reproduction of the central print from Utamarō's Edo meibutsu: nishikie kōsaku triptych. The triptych was originally published ...

[Kuniteru II (illustrated by).

Tōkyō: Monbushō Seihonjo, Meiji 6 (1873)].

An illustrated explanation of screws, featuring an image of a Western book press. One diptych from a series of prints published by the bookbinding division of the Ministry of Education in the 1870s.

Diptych, complete. Foxing, repairs to some wormholes, centre fold, a ...

Emigration at first sight: a play in one act

Douglas, Ian [text by].

London and Glasgow: Gowans & Gray; Boston: The Baker International Play Bureau, 1930. 

A charming play about a young Scottish man and woman who meet in an emigration office, the man looking to emigrate to Toronto, the woman to Auckland. Due to a lack of communication with the off ...

[Untitled set of volumes on kindergarten play methods]

Maeda, Rie [transcribed by].

[Japan, ca. Meiji 29 (1896)]. Manuscript.

A collection of three manuscript volumes providing samples of four paper play methods and instructions for kindergarten teachers. The volumes are numbered "two", "three", and "five", and it is unclear how many volumes were in the or ...

[Five copperplate-printed maps of places in Japan]

[Shuntōsai (Okada Suigetsudō)] ... [et al.] [illustrated by].

[Japan: various publishers, ca. late Edo to early Meiji period (1840-60s)?].

A set of five maps of locations in Japan, copperplate-printed in the late Edo period to early Meiji period. The set includes one map of the city of Kyoto, one of the ci ...

Fujin Sokuhatsu no Hinagata ["Models of Chignons for Women"]

Ashihara, Kuninao [illustrated by].

Nihonbashi, [Tōkyō]: [Inoue Kichijirō], Meiji 18 [1885].

A nishiki-e providing instructions for creating five foreign hairstyles: the "Western up-do", the "Western low-style", the "Italian style", the "Italian low-style", and the "twisted thread style". Western ...

Fuku Wakashi: Takara no Iribune ["New Year's Luck at Boiling Point: Arrival of the Treasure Ship"]

Ikeda, Fusajirō [edited by]; [illustrator unidentified]

[Kyōto]: Ikeda Fusajirō, Meiji 17 [1884].

An illustrated compilation of zashiki-gei (party tricks) styled as a sugoroku (game sheet). The sheet may have been part of a party game in which particip ...

[Illustrator not identified].

[Japan : (publisher not identified), ca. late Edo to early Meiji period (1810-1870s)?].

A woodblock carved on both sides used to print a fukubiki lottery game. Fukubiki was a "popular pastime involving the drawing of lots or some similar method to win prizes".¹ This particular woodblock would have been used for a fukubiki game ca ...

Nan'yō Keizai Kenkyūjo.

Tōkyō : Nan'yō Keizai Kenkyūjo, Shōwa 19 [1944].

A booklet in Japanese listing famous Australians and Australian residents, including convicts, explorers, artists, Royal Navy officers, geographers, and naturalists. The figures included are, in order, William Dampier, Sir George Jackson Duckett (who&nb ...

Hana sekai ["World of flowers"]

Nonoguchi, Kajō [illustrated by]; Usui, Sukejirō [edited by].

Kyōto: Unsōdō, Meiji 43 [1910].

A collection of fifty kimono designs by Nonoguchi Kajō. The colour woodblock-printed designs feature flowers, birds, rabbits, butterflies, fans, landscapes, bamboo, and other traditional and modern themes. A highlight of the ...

Haru no gyokushō ["Spring's excellent compositions"]

[Creator unidentified]. 

[Ōsaka?: Murakami-ten?, Meiji 44 (1911)?]. 

An unrecorded book of thirty-three designs for New Year's postcards and twelve postcard-sized illustrations in a nanga style. A printed note at the beginning of the book suggests the work was published in Meiji 44 by t ...

Hashimotoya Shiraito no Hanashi ["The Story of Shiraito of Hashimoto-ya"]

[Tsukioka], Yoshitoshi [illustrated by].

Bakurochō, [Tōkyō]: Tsunajima Kamekichi, Meiji 19 [1886].

An ōban diptych of the courtesan Shiraito at the Hashimoto-ya pleasure house, from the Shinsen Azuma Nishiki-e ("Newly Selected Brocade Pictures of the East") series by the acclaimed uk ...

Hesochaban ["Absurd Farces"]

Ippitsuan [Keisai, Eisen] [selections by]; [Keisai], Eisen [illustrated by]. 

Nihonbashi, [Tōkyō]: Kawaguchi Uhē, Kōka 3 [1846]. 

A selection of abridged chaban (skits or farces) recorded and illustrated by the ukiyo-e artist Keisai Eisen (1790-1848), who saw the pieces performed in person. Dylan McGee (2010) provides ...

Hikanyakuōen ["Medicine for the liver and spleen"]

Ishida, Katsuhide [produced by].

Kyōto: Ishida Katsuhide, [revised in Meiji 28 (1895)].

A colour woodblock-printed leaf featuring information on Hikanyakuōen, a type of medicine claimed by the manufacturers to cure various issues with internal organs. The symptoms pictured in the lower half of the print ar ...

本朝振袖之始 素盞烏尊妖怪降伏之圖 [Honchō Furisode no Hajime: Susanoo-no-Mikoto Yōkai Gōbuku no Zu, “Susanoo no Mikoto Subdues the Yōkai in Honchō Furisode no Hajime”]

Edogawa [Katsushika], Hokki [illustrated by].

[Japan: unidentified publisher, ca. Kaei 4 (1851)].

A yoko-ōban nishiki-e by Katsushika Hokki (years of birth and death unknown), a pupi ...

"細川家大火忠死誉"

Kōchōrō, Kunisada [Utagawa, Kunisada III (illustrated by)]; Kawatake, Shinshichi III [original play by].

Nihonbashi, [Tōkyō] : Fukuda Kumajirō, Meiji 22 [1889].

A triptych by Utagawa Kunisada III (1848–1920) depicting the most famous scene from the kabuki play Tsutamoyō Chizome no Goshuin (蔦模様血染御書, “The Ivy-Patterned Bl ...

[Hyakunin Isshu karuta]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. Edo period (1750-1850s)?]. In manuscript.

A complete set of two hundred Hyakunin Isshu playing cards (karuta). The Hyakunin Isshu card game (a form of uta-garuta ("poetry karuta")) is based on the anthology of one hundred waka poems by one hundred poets compiled by Fujiwara no Teika in the thirtee ...

Imayō Mitate Hori Suri Ryōkō no Zu ["A Modern-day Adaptation Picturing Carving and Printing"]

Utagawa, Kunisada [Toyokuni III] [illustrated by]. 

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. Taishō period (1910-20s)?].

A simplified Taishō-era (?) reproduction of the triptych Imayō Mitate Shi-Nō-Kō-Shō: Shokunin ("A Modern-day Adaptation of the Four Classe ...

Kyōto: Miyabi-kai, [ca. 1920-30s].

An early Shōwa period invitation to an exhibition of fabrics with new dyeing and weaving designs held by the Miyabi-kai. Information about the location and time of the event appears in the illustration of the gramophone and its base when the lower moving section of the card is revolved.

One card, complete. Light di ...

[Japan]: H. Ahrens & Co., [ca. 1870-1910].

A piece of packaging for 'Turkey red' (a colour used to dye cotton fabrics) with a lithographic label tipped-in. H. Ahrens & Co. was a German trading company based in Tōkyō with branches in Yokohama and Kōbe. John Orr Ewing & Co. was the name of a prominent Turkey red firm in Scotland.

O ...

Joreishiki no Zu ["Illustrations of Ladies' Etiquette"] 

[Yasui], Kotō [illustrated by].

Nihonbashi, [Tōkyō]: Matsuno Yonejirō, Meiji 28 [1895].

A colour woodblock-printed album of scenes of elegant Japanese ladies engaging in traditionally appropriate pastimes and ceremonies. The fourteen scenes spread over eight leaves picture women exchanging N ...

Mizushima, Kōyō (Isaiah) [edited by].

Tōkyō : Seikyō Honkai Henshūjo, Meiji 39 [1906]. First edition.

A document printed to commemorate a celebration by the congregation of the Japanese Orthodox Church for the 25th anniversary of Bishop Nikolai Kasatkin (1836–1912) and his elevation to Archbishop of All Japan by the Russian Orthodox Holy Syno ...

Kachi-Kachi Mountain

Hiro, Kodō [Japanese indirectly translated by]; Thompson, David [English translation by].

Tōkyō: Hiro Kodō, Hasegawa Takejirō, Meiji 20 [1887].

A supplement to issue 1,219 of Eiri Jiyū Shinbun featuring the translation of Kachi-Kachi Yama originally used in one of Hasegawa Takejirō's famous chirimenbon (crepe-paper books). The tex ...

Kaichū Hoshi Tokei ["Pocket-Sized Clock of the Stars"]

Senshūkan Shujin [created by].

[Japan]: Marita Genryōdō, Kaei 5 [1852].

A chart of the "Twenty-Eight Mansions" of Chinese astronomy (loosely equivalent to the zodiacal constellations of Western astronomy), with text describing the locations of five mansions for each of the 24 divisions of the solar y ...

Kaichū Jūhō ["Important Treasures, Pocket-Sized"]

[Creator/s unidentified]. 

Ōsaka: Honya Kitarō, [ca. late Edo to early Meiji period (1840-60s)?].

A portable booklet of charts and volvelles used in astrology for fortune-telling, featuring six woodblock-printed panels. Three of the panels feature intact volvelles used to quickly determine days and ...

Kanegura Sandaiki ["Three Generations of Treasuries"]

Hattori [Mantei], Ōga [text by]; Seisei [Kawanabe], Kyōsai [illustrated by]. 

Tōkyō: Kobayashi [Tsuruya] Kiemon ... [et al.], Meiji 7 [1874].

A set of three Kyōsai-Ōga zasshi issues, complete, about a family's economic struggles revolving around their pawnshop Iseya. The title of the moralist ...

Katawa Musume ["The Deformed Girl"]

Fukuzawa, Yukichi [text by]. 

[Tōkyō]: Fukuzawa Yukichi, Meiji 5 [1872]. 

A short satire attacking the traditional Japanese custom of married women blackening their teeth and shaving off their eyebrows, by the famed reformer, educator, and expert on Western civilisation Fukuzawa Yukichi (1835-1901). The work is ...

Kikkyō Kafuku Hitorihandan: Ekigaku Benmō ["Judgements on Good and Bad Fortunes: A Primer on the Study of Divination"]

Kataoka, Kenzō [edited by].

Kyōto: Nakamura Asakichi, Meiji 19 [1886].

A fortune-telling book and sangi (counting rod) set, housed in its original box. To tell one's fortune, the six rods would be thrown, and the resulting hexagram ...

Kiso Kaidō Rokujūkyū-tsugi ["Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kiso Road"]

[Keisai], Eisen, [Utagawa], Hiroshige [illustrated by].

Tōkyō: Shin'eidō, Taishō 10 [1921].

A Taishō era set of reduced-size woodblock-printed reproductions of Eisen and Hiroshige's famous Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō series originally published between 1835 and 1837. ...

Kiyoki ["Purity"]

Tabata, Seikō, Yoshī, Seisen, Yamada, Seikyo [edited by].

Kyōto: Gōmei Gaisha Unsōdō, Meiji 40 [1907].

The first volume (all published) of the little-known Unsōdō publication Kiyoki. The large format volume features fifty colour woodblock-printed designs for kimono, presumably by the editors Tabata Seikō, Yoshī Seisen, and Yamada Seikyo ...

Kokkei Ō-A Gaikō Chizu = A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia

Nishida, Suketarō [text by]; Ohara, Kisaburō [envisaged by]; Nakamura, Shingo [supervised by].

Ishikawa: Nishida Suketarō, Meiji 37 [1904]. Third edition.

A satirical map produced in Japan during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). The work shows Russia as a giant octopus whose tentacl ...

Kōko Shinbun ["World News"]

Fukuchi, Gen'ichirō [produced by]. 

[Edo (Tōkyō): Fukuchi Gen'ichirō], Keiō 4 [1868]. 

Issues 1-5 of Kōko Shinbun, a pro-Bakufu newspaper founded by the reporter, interpreter, and Tokugawa loyalist Fukuchi Gen'ichirō (1841-1906). The issues include illustrations lifted from British and French newspapers, se ...

Kōkoku ["Advertisement"]

[Company name illegible].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late Edo to Meiji period (1850-1900s)?]. 

A woodblock-printed advertisement for bunshi (文紙), described in the document as "various [blank] documents for transactions [financial, legal, or otherwise] made between people". The firm offers these printed documents at a ...

Kokon moyō-shū: musō kōeki monchō ["Collection of ancient and modern designs: patterns to gain unparalleled profits"]

Murakami, Masatake [edited by].

Ōsaka: Maekawa Zenbē, Meiji 18 [1885].

A copperplate-engraved textbook on design, featuring ten pages of colour designs (the colours possibly woodblock-printed), the rest monochrome. Perhaps intended as a ma ...

Kotengeki no Shinenshutsu wa Ikani Arubekika: Sheikusupia "Uenisu no Shōnin" (Mingei, Nissei Gekijo Kōen) ni Tsuite ["How Should New Productions of Classic Plays be Staged? Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (Mingei and Nissei Theatre Productions)"]

Takei, Teruo [written by].

[Japan, ca. 1968]. Handwritten.

A draft in pen of an article by famed lit ...

Kyōto zuan ["Kyoto designs"] 

Okada, Shikō, Shimomura, Gyokukō [edited by]; 

Kyōto: Kyōto Zuan Zasshi Hakkō-bu, Meiji 43 [1910]. 

Issues 60, 62, and 63 of series 5 of the magazine Kyōto Zuan. Each issue features colourful patterns (some lithographic), monochrome collotype illustrations, and articles on design by contributors. 

& ...

Manpō Eitai Shin-zassho: Nihon-zu-iri; Saigō Chōhōki ["New Miscellany of Countless Eternal Treasures, with a Map of Japan; Useful Record of Year Names"] 

[Tokanshi (selections by)?].

Edo [Tōkyō]: Tsubameya Yashichi, [ca. mid to late Edo period (1750-1770s)?]. 

An encyclopaedic sheet, woodblock-printed on both sides, providing astrological, histor ...

[Untitled Programme/Menu]

[Japan: publisher unidentified], 1923.

A programme and menu for a US-Japan themed celebration, in French. The embossed naval crest on the upper section of the card implies the event was held on a ship.

Mondokoro kirikata ["Stencils for crest-cutting"]

Arai, Isaburō [illustrated by].

[Edo (Tōkyō)]: Ōnoya Kinzō, [ca. late Edo period (1830-50s)?].

Two issues of a playful work on cutting kamon (family crests) from folded paper. The instructions on the upper wrappers indicate how to fold the paper and how to use the issues - a monkiri ("crest-cutting") can ...

Moyō gajō ["Album of patterns"]

[Artist unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. early Shōwa period (1920-40s)?]. 

An album of fourteen colour woodblock-printed patterns. Six of the patterns feature multiple colours; the remaining eight are single-colour prints. It is possible the prints were removed from a larger volume and bound in handmad ...

Nanakorobi Yaoki Kaiun Sugoroku ["The Vicissitudes of Life: Game-Sheet of Fortune and Success"] 

Takabatake, Kashō [illustrated by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late 20th century?]. 

A reproduction, possibly from the late 20th century, of a Taishō-era period "game of life" sugoroku, sealed in its original plastic wrapper and with its orig ...