[Untitled woodblock print]

[Artist unidentified].

Tōkyō: Shibakawado, [ca. Taishō period (1910-20s)?].

A woodblock-printed leaf featuring two designs for Christmas and New Years’ greeting cards. The cards may have been produced for Japanese people to send to English-speaking friends, or as souvenirs for foreign tourists to send back to friends in the ...

[Untitled painting of a woman daydreaming]

Hatori, Kozan [painted by].  

[Japan, ca. Taishō to early Shōwa period (1910-30s)?]. In manuscript.

A large (176 x 108.5 cm) painting of an exhausted woman daydreaming of a rough sea voyage as a butterfly flutters around her head. The artist, Hatori Kozan (1891-), studied under Kajita Hanko (1870-1917) a ...

"滑稽 笑袋"

Murata, Tamesaburō [text by].

Tōkyō: Hakkōdō, Meiji 27 [1894].

A woodblock-printed collection of amusing mistakes and misheard words. The compilation, publication of which was certified by the Home Ministry, is almost entirely in katakana.

One leaf, complete. Creases, light foxing, marks, small hole and sticker removal. 24 ...

[Untitled Album]

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. mid-Meiji to Taishō period (1890-1920s)?].

An album of thirty colour woodblock-printed spreads produced for calligraphy enthusiasts, who could write in brush and ink directly onto the pages or ask ...

[Untitled Menuki]

[Higashiyama, (Kyōto)?: workshop unidentified, ca. Edo period (17th to mid-19th century)].

A metal menuki (fitting for a sword hilt) in the shape of three Japanese books, two with yotsumetoji (four-hole) bindings and one with a musubitoji (yamatotoji) stabbinding. The mounted daisen title of the stab-bound volume reads Nagauta (長� ...

Shōgaku Dokuhon Kangaku Suiteki [“Elementary Reader: Water-Dropper for the Encouragement of Learning”]

[Japan: workshop unidentified, ca. early to mid Meiji period (1870-1890s)].

A Bizen ware suiteki (water-dropper used to add water to ink for calligraphy or penmanship practice) in the shape of a fukurotoji-bound Japanese book. Bizen pottery is traditi ...

[(Japan?): maker unidentified, ca. Shōwa period (20th century)].

A playful obi patterned with small, vibrantly coloured books within golden frames, probably produced in the Shōwa period.

One obi. Minor rubbing to background fabric. Cream-coloured underside. Approximately 430 x 31 cm.

[A child's jinbaori coat decorated with peaches and crests]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. Edo period (17th to mid-19th century)?].

A child's decorative surcoat or overcoat for use outdoors, with kamon crests sewn on the back. The cute peach design on the front alludes to the popular tale of Momotaro, and this design and the jacket's size ...

[Japan: publisher and creator unidentified, ca. early to mid Meiji period (1870-90s)].

A collection of fabric representations (oshi-e (押絵)) of characters from ukiyo-e. The title slips and lines of characters' clothes appear to have been cut out from woodblock-prints and laid onto various pasted-down fabrics to bring the characters to life. Some sections of the figur ...

Naimono-zukushi ["A Compilation of Things That Aren't"]

[Author/s unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late Edo period (1820-50s?)].

A "collection of things that aren't"; each line of text ends with nai, a negative form of a verb or an auxiliary verb and adjective indicating the lack or non-existence of something. For example, one lin ...

Goshinpatsu Hitotsutose-bushi ["Military Departure: A Hitotsutose Song"]

[Author/s unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. late Meiji period (1890-1910s?)].

A hitotsutose counting song in twenty verses on a military campaign, possibly printed around the time of the First Sino-Japanese War or the Russo-Japanese War. Hitotsutose was a type of kazo ...

[Fabric Fragment].

[Designer unidentified].

[Japan: manufacturer unidentified, ca. Meiji period (1868-1912)?].

A cutting of fabric embroidered with a bird's-eye image of people dancing on a bridge. The fragmen ...

[Fabric fragment]

[Designer unidentified].

[Japan: manufacturer unidentified, ca. Meiji period (1868-1912)?].

A cutting of fabric embroidered with clouds, pine trees, waves, and foreign ships. The fragment, which ...

[A lady's chatelaine pencil case, with Japanese motifs]

[Craftsperson unidentified].

[S.l., ca. 19th century?].

A beautiful chatelaine pencil case, possibly Victorian, featuring distinctly Japanese motifs. The pencil case would have been attached to a chain hung from a decorative belt clasp (chatelaine). Useful household items like scissors and keys co ...

[A large woodblock used for printing medical advertisements]

[Creator unidentified].

Mino-no-kuni [Gifu]: [manufacturer unidentified, ca. late Edo period (18th to mid-19th century)?].

A large woodblock used around the late Edo period for printing advertisements for taidoku medicine. Taidoku (literally "inherent poison" (i.e. a disease believed to have been ...

[A Meiji era photograph of Japanese police graduating from an English language class]

[Photographer unidentified].

[Japan: studio unidentified], 1906.

A photograph produced during the Meiji era. The handwritten caption reads (in English) "June 28, 1906. Graduating ceremony of English student [sic] of police". Two foreign women and one foreign man are pictu ...

Shujū Gi wo Mamorite Nan wo Manukaru ["A Master and Servant Observe Obedience to Their Duties and a Disaster is Averted"]

Ōju [Mizuno], Toshikata [illustrated by]; [Tominaga], Toshichika [corrected by].

Tōkyō: Tsuji Keiji: Fukyū sha, Meiji 21 [1888]. "Later printing".

Kōfu sake wo tachite issei no kuwauju to naru ["To become a world-famous scholar after renouncing alcohol"]

[Kobayashi], Toshikazu [illustrated by]; [Tominaga], Toshichika [corrected by].

Tōkyō: Tsuji Keiji: Fukyū sha, Meiji 21 [1888]. "Later printing".

&n ...

[Kitao, Masayoshi ... (et al.) (illustrated by)].

[Tōkyō]: Sekaidō, [ca. mid-Shōwa period (1930-50s)?].

A collection of four postcards introducing famous places in Tokyo, featuring an illustration of a shop selling ezōshi (illustrated books), nishiki-e (ukiyo-e prints), hanging scrolls, and other items in Asakusa's Nakamise shopping street. ...

Odoke Jitsugokyō: irozato machijū anazukushi, shohen ["A witty Jitsugokyō: all sorts of tales from around the pleasure quarters, first part"]

[Author unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified], Tenpō 2 [1831].

The Jitsugokyō ("Teachings of the words of truth") was a textbook on morality used for learning kanji and kanbun (literary Sinitic) at terakoya ...

[Untitled Album of the Activities of the Washi Research Institute)]

[Uemura, Rokurō (compiled by)].

[Japan, ca. mid-Shōwa period (1950s)].

A scrapbook of tipped-in photographs and fabric samples compiled by Uemura Rokurō, a renowned researcher of dyeing and weaving. The scrapbook includes pictures of Dr. Hans Drissler (who founded the Japan Paper Import Co ...

[A forged scroll of examples of Rai San'yō seals]

[Artist unidentified].

[Japan, ca. late Edo to early Shōwa period (1860-1920s?)]. In manuscript with seal impressions.

A scroll featuring a painted gourd hand stamped with fifty examples of seals of various names used by the Nanga School artist and Confucianist philosopher Rai San'yō (1780-1832). Th ...

[A "third type" decree banning Christianity, issued by the Meiji government]

[Japan]: Daijō-kan, Keiō 4 [1868]. Wooden placard.

In Keiō 4 (1868), the first year of Meiji, the newly formed Meiji government issued five official decrees or notices (the Gobō no Keiji) to be displayed on wooden placards across Japan. The third decree enforced a strict prohibition of Ki ...

[Album of works by calligraphers and artists]

Seishū, Baien, Tekiho, Keiho, ... [et al.] [illustrations and calligraphy by].

[Japan, ca. late Meiji to Taishō period (1900-20s)?]. In manuscript.

An album of elegant hand-painted illustrations and calligraphy by a range of little-known Japanese artists and calligraphers. The album contains seven double-page ...

亜墨利加國蒸氣車往来 [Amerika-koku Jōkisha Ōrai, “The Transit of an American Steam Locomotive”]

Issen [Utagawa], Yoshikazu [illustrated by].

[Tōkyō: Maruya Jinpachi, Bunkyū Gannen (1861)].

This eye-catching triptych of an American "steam train" is believed to be based on an image of the Japanese embassy arriving in 1860 in Washington, D.C., f ...

"亞墨利加洲内華盛頓府之景 銅板之寫生"

Issen [Utagawa], Yoshikazu [illustrated by].

[Tōkyō]: Maruya Jinpachi, [ca. Bunkyū Gannen (1861)].

A decidedly European depiction of Washington, purportedly based on an (asyet unidentified) copperplate engraving. A scarce aizuri-e of a foreign scene by Utagawa Yoshikazu (active ca. 1850–70), a pupil of Kuniyoshi (1 ...

[Japan: workshop unidentified, ca. mid-Meiji period (1870-1900s)].

An opulent serving dish patterned with floral devices and book motifs. An apocryphal Chinese 'Chenghua' mark reading Daimin Seika nen sei (“made during the Chenghua reign of the Great Ming Dynasty”) adorns the base. This mark was used on Chinese ceramics and employed by Edo era Japanese ...

[An untitled collection of twenty-three kamon and katagami stencils]

[Creator/s unidentified]. 

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

A collection of beautiful hand-cut stencils for textile dyeing. Most of the stencils feature kamon (circular family crests) and would have been used on the back panel of coats. ...

[A Sugoroku Game Featuring Various Animals]

Kokunimasa [illustrated by].

Tōkyō: Fukuda Kumajirō, Meiji 27 [1894].

A paper sugoroku game illustrated with various animals, by Kokunimasa. Kokunimasa was almost certainly Utagawa Kunimasa V (years of birth and death undetermined), who used the name Baidō Kokunimasa between 1889 and 1896. Many animals foreig ...

[An untitled surimono featuring poems by kabuki actors]

[Hasegawa], Sadanobu [II] [illustrated by]; Fukusuke, Tokizō, Danjurō ... [et al.] [poems by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. early Meiji period (1870-80s?)].

A surimono (woodblock-printed leaf) featuring twentytwo poems, seemingly all by kabuki actors, and an illustration of a flaming jewel by ...

Asakusa Kinryuzan Kaminarimon [Kaminarimon at Kinryūsan Temple, Asakusa]

[Hasegawa], Konobu [illustrated by].

Ōsaka: Tanaka Yasu [Yasujirō], [ca. Meiji 10 (1878)]. 

Determined temple-goers hold their umbrellas aloft as they fight their way through the crowded Kaminarimon in Asakusa on a rainy night. Senshafuda (votive slips) have been paste ...

Atagoyama no Zu ["View from Mt. Atago"]

Kobayashi, Kiyochika [illustrated by].

Ryōgoku, [Tōkyō]: Matsuki Heikichi, Meiji 11 [1878].

A colour woodblock-printed illustration designed by the artist Kobayashi Kiyochika (1847-1915) of the view of Tōkyō from Mt. Atago. Kiyochika's characteristic use of shadows and areas of flat colour creates an image resona ...

[Banshoku tejōchin ("Hand-lanterns for all sorts of professions")]

Sankanjin, Kōrai [text by]; [Ikkōsai, Ikumaru (illustrated by)].

[Tōkyō: Yoshidaya Bunzaburō, ca. late Edo to early Meiji period (1850-70s?)].

A guidebook to a special calligraphic style which emerged in the late Edo period for use in advertisements, especially those handpainted on lantern ...

Bojutsu Yumemonogatari ["Dream Story of 1838"]

Takano, Chōei [work by]; [Takizawa (copied by)?].

[Japan, ca. late Edo period (1840-60s?)].

In Tenpō 8 (1837), the American trading ship the Morrison, captained by Charles King, was met with cannon fire upon its arrival in Japan. Japan was still officially closed to other countries in the 1830s, so this w ...

"親爺教育: ジグスとマギー, 第一輯"

McManus, George [created by].

Tōkyō : Asahi Shinbunsha, [Taishō 13 (1924)].

The first Japanese language collection of Bringing Up Father cartoons by American illustrator George McManus. Another collection (believed to be the last collection published in Japanese) was produced the following year. The book includes a pream ...

Chinbun Kanbun ["Curious Pieces of Nonsense News"]

[Suzuki, Rainosuke (illustrated by)?].

Ōsaka: Wataya Kihē, Meiji 10 [1877]. 

Issues 1-8 of this scarce Ōsaka-based periodical, bound and sold by the publisher in one volume. The bizarre cover illustration features electric cables (to which eyes and many ears are attached), a tanuki riding a stag, a fo ...

Chinshō Shinshi ["New Magazine of Rare Laughs"]

Noda, Chiaki [Takashimaya, Tōu] [edited by]; [Kawanabe], Kyōsai [illustrated by].

Tōkyō: Kaichinsha, Meiji 11 [1878]. 

Issue two of the comical magazine Chinshō Shinshi, featuring a woodblock-printed upper wrapper in a toba-e style by Kyōsai. The illustration depicts the "Three Laughing Men at Tiger Broo ...

Collection de Pelliot, Manuscrits de Touen-houang

[Transcriber/s and annotator/s unidentified].

[S.l.: s.n., ca. early 20th century].

Possibly a typescript draft of the catalogue of the Pelliot Collection of Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Uighur fragments and manuscripts discovered in China's Dunhuang caves (or 'Mogao Grottoes') by the French ...

"大しんぱん 大笑歌仙合 やさことば"

[Creator unidentified].

Gion, [Kyōto]: Yamasa, [ca. Edo period (early 19th century)].

A woodblock-printed collection of risqué poems, mostly about courtesans, published in the entertainment district of Kyōto in the early 19th century. The publisher, Yamasa, also produced kappazuri prints designed by Urakusai Nagahide in ...

"海外人物輯"

Nagata, Nankei [text by]; Ikkōsai [Utagawa, Yoshimori] [illustrations by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, preface dated Kaei 7 (1854)].

An album of people and traditional clothing from 42 countries around the world, with brief descriptions of the customs and geography of each country. The set was published as a revised edition of Nishikawa Jo ...

Dai-hiden Hakusajin-shū ["Collection of People of the White Sand: Extremely Secret Transmissions"]; Hisho Yōketsu ["Key Points of Secret Volumes"]; Haikai Shinshinshiki ["New Forms of Haikai"]

[Matsuo, Bashō (attributed to)]; Morikawa, Kyoriku [original text by]; [Yūsetsuan, Kōmyō (hand-copied by)?].

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 ...

Ōji Seishi-Gaisha Ryakuzu ["Diagram of the Ōji Paper Company"]

Ōsai [Utagawa], Fusatane [Murai, Shizuma] [illustrated by]. 

Asakusa, [Tōkyō]: Tsunashima Kamekichi, Meiji 10 [1877].

A copperplate-printed diagram of the different stages of papermaking at the Ōji Paper Company. The illustration depicts the paper mill the company built in 1875 i ...

Kurisumasu Karoru ["A Christmas Carol"]

Dickens, [Charles] [original text by]; Yaguchi, Tatsu [translated by].

Tōkyō : Uetake Shoin, Taishō 4 [1915].

An early Japanese edition of Dickens's classic novel by Yaguchi Tatsu (1889-1936), translator of works by Wilde, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Cervantes, Boccaccio, Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, Jack London, Hav ...

Dōke kyōga-zukushi ["A collection of humorous caricatures"]

[Artist unidentified].

[Tōkyō-fu: Kogaya Kotsugorō, Meiji 8 (1875)].

A colour woodblock-printed montage of six humorous scenes, featuring women selling hot beans, a trapped oni (ogre) in postage-stamp patterned robes, a Japanese man winning a game of igo ('Go') against a Chinese man, ...

Edo Ryōgoku suzumi no zu ["Cooling off at Ryōgoku in Edo"]

[Kikukawa], Eizan [illustrated by].

[Edo (Tōkyō)]: Kawaguchi [Kawaguchiya Uhē], [Bunka 8 (1811)]. 

The rightmost print only of a triptych depicting a busy night scene at Ryōgoku Bridge in Tokyo. Eizan (1787-1867) studied both Kanō school and Shijō school painting styles and designed many bijin ...

英和四書：別冊 大學・中庸 英文 全 [Eiwa Shisho: Bessatsu Daigaku, Chūyō, Eibun, Zen, “Four Books of the Chinese Classics Translated into English”]

[Confucius; Zisi (original texts by)]; Legge, James [translated by]; Imamura, N[agayoshi] [revised and translated into Japanese by].

Tōkyō: Z.P. Maruya & Co., Meiji 18 [1885]. "New edition".

Jame ...

Eiwa Tsūshin ["English-Japanese Transmissions"]

[Creator unidentified].

Asakusa, [Tōkyō]: Seyama Sakichi, Meiji 20 [1888].

A small copperplate-printed book of English words with diagrams, meanings, and pronunciations in Japanese. Because of the lack of visibility of the page numbers, it is difficult to determine if the work is complete. The first page, ...

[Embroidered purse] 

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. mid to late Edo period (1800-1850s?)]. 

An ornate purse from the Edo period, hand-embroidered with purple and white irises. The string and small fabric bauble attached to the purse are more recent, possibly from the mid to late twentieth century. 

One fabric purs ...

[Firefighting gear from Setagaya, Tokyo]

[Creator/s unidentified].

[Tōkyō, ca. Meiji to early Shōwa period (1880-1920s)?].

A set of four hoods, one pair of gloves, and one jacket used by firemen working in Setagaya, Tokyo. The items, which probably date from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century, were made using sashiko hand embroidery and aizom ...