Ikoku monogatari: Nakanohama Manjirō ["Story of a foreign country: Nakanohama Manjirō"]

[Author unidentified]; [Kashii, Masateru (hand-copied by)].

[Japan], Kaei 5 [1852]. Manuscript.

A manuscript recounting the experiences of the Japanese boy Manjirō (later known as Nakanohama Manjirō, John Manjirō, and John Mung). In 1841, fourteen-year-old Manjirō was s ...

Jintai Mondō ["Questions and Answers About the Human Body"]

Shirotani, Ken [text by]; Nakayama, Chikakazu [proofread by].

Kyōto: Murakami Kanbē , Meiji 9 [1876].

An introductory text to the human body, presumably for schoolage students. The work includes several colour woodblockprinted vignettes of body parts and an illustration of English sign language ...

Otoshidama ["New Year's Gift"]

Yamada, Jinzō [edited by].

Nagoya: Shōeidō, Meiji 26 [1893]. 

A large hikifuda (advertisement) produced for Hayashi Shinbun-ho, a shipping company based in Hamamatsu that also produced newspapers and magazines. The hikifuda is presented as an otoshidama (New Year's gift), presumably in an attempt to encourage mor ...

[Japan: publishers unidentified, ca. Edo period (19th century)].

A collection of twenty woodblockprinted mamori, woodblock-printed paper amulets usually sold at temples and shrines. Most of the amulets record what the buyer will be protected from, and several are enclosed in woodblockprinted 'envelopes'.

Twenty paper amulets. Creases, mark ...

[Untitled Collection of Photographs]

[Photographer unidentified].

Esashi, Hokkaidō: Asakura Shashinkan, [ca. Shōwa 11 (1936)].

A collection of 24 photographs capturing various groups that travelled to Esashi, Hokk ...

Renpō Shōritsu ["Commercial Law of the Federation"]

[Parsons, Theophilus (original text by)]; Fujita, Kuni [translated by]; Seisei [Kawanabe], Kyōsai [illustrated by]; Katsu, Kaishū [preliminary calligraphy by].

Tōkyō: Kinokuniya Saisuke ... [et al.], Meiji 6-7 [1873-1874]. 

A complete two-volume set of Fujita Kuni's translation of a work by the ...

Sakigake ["The Forerunner"]

Kaneko, Kinji, Kamisaka, Sekka, Taniguchi, Kōkyō [advised by]; Furuya, Kōrin [firm headed by]; Kawanabe, Kokichi [edited by].

Kyōto: Yamada Naosaburō, Kaiseisha, Meiji 34 [1901].

Issue eleven of Sakigake magazine, featuring two pages of designs in colour (possibly printed with a mixture of lithography and halftoning) and eight p ...

Sakigake ["The Forerunner"]

Kaneko, Kinji, Kamisaka, Sekka, Taniguchi, Kōkyō [advised by]; Furuya, Kōrin [firm headed by]; Kawanabe, Kokichi [edited by].

Kyōto: Yamada Naosaburō, Kaiseisha, Meiji 34 [1901].

Issue six of Sakigake magazine, featuring two pages of designs in colour (possibly printed with a mixture of woodblocks and lithography) and eight page ...

Seiro Kinen ["Commemoration of the Attack on Russia"]

[Hamada], Josen [signed by].

[Japan, ca. 1904-1905]. In manuscript.

A political scene featuring the traditional Japanese fairytale characters Momotaro ("Peach Boy") and friends (a dog, monkey, and pheasant) storming into battle against Russian soldiers. The scroll was probably painted during or shortly ...

西洋四書：英漢對譯 大學
[Seiyō Shisho: Eikan Taiyaku, Daigaku, “The Western Four Classics: an English-Chinese Parallel Translation of 'The Great Learning'”]

[Confucius (original text by)]; Rejji, Zēmusu [Legge, James (English translation by)]; Seki, Yoshitaka [Japanese "translation" by].

Tōkyō: Yamatoya Kihē, Meiji 5 [1872]. 

T ...

占景盤図式 [Senkeiban Zushiki, “Illustrations of Tray-Landscapes”]

Suminoe, Buzen [bonkei created by]; Suminoe, Aizan [compiled and edited by]; Nagayama, Kōin ... [et al.] [illustrated by]; Tadataka, Katsu [preface by].

Kyōto: Namariya Yasubē; Edo [Tōkyō]: Tsuruya Kiemon; Ōsaka: Kawachiya Tasuke ... [and 3 others], Bunsei 9 [1826].

A complet ...

Shimeizukushi Sugoroku ["A Game Board of Various Papers"]

[Creator unidentified].

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

A Shōwa period edition of this illustrated game about papermaking and Japanese paper types. The original edition is thought to have been produced between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Each panel depicts ...

Shin'an Nankyoku tanken hikōki sugoroku ["Antarctic expedition by plane: a newly devised game-sheet"]

Akashi, Akako [illustrated by].

Tōkyō: Jitsugyō no Nihonsha, Meiji 44 [1911]. 

A game-sheet published during the golden era of Antarctic exploration. In the game, four players race to the South Pole, travelling through various countries including ...

Shina Taiji: Nihon Ryūkōbushi ["Popular Japanese Songs on the Extermination of China"]

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

Tōkyō: Fusōdō, Meiji 27 [1894].

A book of humorous folk songs on the First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895), written by the novelist, poet, and Maru Maru Chi ...

Shinpan Katsura-e ["Illustrations of Wigs, Newly Published"]

[Utagawa], Yoshikazu [illustrated by].

[Edo (Tōkyō)]: Shiba Sen'ichi, Kaei 6 [1853].

A colour woodblock-printed omocha-e (toy print) featuring illustrations of six kabuki actors (including one onnagata actor) and 38 wigs to be cut out and placed on the actors' heads for amusement. Each wi ...

Shinpan kawari utsushi-e ["Changing magic lantern pictures: newly carved"]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, ca. mid to late Meiji period (1880-90s)?].

A set of six pochibukuro (mini-envelopes) from the Meiji period featuring shikake-e (movable illustrations). Each pochibukuro has inside it a small print that can be slid upwards to ch ...

新板おもちやづくし [Shinpan Omocha-Zukushi, “A Newly Printed Assortment of Toys”]

Kamiyama, Seishichi [illustrated by].

Shintomichō, [Tōkyō]: Kamiyama Seishichi, Meiji 17 [1884].

An omocha-e toy print featuring an assortment of tiny games, probably for children to cut out and play (or pretend to play) with. The games include a "Fifty-Three Stati ...

Shinsaku Dodoitsu: Rokoku Seibatsu ["New Dodoitsu Poems on the Crushing Defeat of Russia"] 

Kinryū, Sanjin, Suzuki, Kōhachi [edited by].

Tōkyō: Ōkawaya Shoten, Meiji 37 [1904].

A collection of dodoitsu, kyōku, kyōka, haiku, kappore, and other poems published in support of Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). The work was pu ...

Shinsen Jinbutsu: Orikata Tehon Chūshingura, Jūichi-dan ["New Selection of Figures: Models of Paper Folding for the Eleven Acts of the Chūshingura"]; Chūshingura Orikata Denjū-gaki ["Instructions on How to Fold the Chūshingura"]

[Tsuyama, Yūzō (attributed to)].

Ōsaka: Konomura Hikosuke, [ca. Meiji period (1870-1890s)]. 

A set of two sheets prov ...

Shinshiki Sanpō: Kuku no Fuda ["Nine-Nine Cards: A New Method of Arithmetic"]

[Tsurumine, Shigenobu (devised by)].

Nagoya: Tōhekidō, Bunsei 9 [1826].

A folded sheet of instructions for performing calculations using kuku ("nine-nine") cards, together with thirty cards. A relative of the Chinese multiplication table, this kuku method was created to help pe ...

Shōmon Jittetsu ["The Ten Eminent Disciples of Bashō"]

[Creator's name illegible].

[Japan: creator illegible, ca. early Shōwa period (1930-40s?)].

A set of woodblock-printed matchbox-sized labels featuring portraits of the ten most highly acclaimed pupils of the famed poet Matsuo Bashō, together with examples of their poetry. The disciples are (left to ...

[Six printed items relating to Japan]

[Various illustrators].

[Japan and Germany: various publishers, mid-Edo period to early Meiji period (1669-1840s?)].

Six printed items available as a set, including four Japanese copperplate-printed leaves (including three mounted on card), one copperplate-printed leaf from Montanus (showing Hirado), and one pocket-siz ...

Sōsaku hanga to hanga no tsukurikata = How to make prints: drawn, blok-cut [sic] & printed by author

Tohary, Kogan [Tobari, Kogan] [text and illustrations by].

Tōkyō: Hangasha, Taishō 11 [1922]. Later printing.

A scarce copy of this valuable resource on the process of woodblock printing by the sculptor and sōsaku hanga artist Tobari Kogan (1882-1927). ...

Souvenir and programme of the visit of Prince Fushimi to England

[Author unidentified].

London: Burgess William & Co., [ca. 1907].

A crepe-paper poster detailing Prince Fushimi Sadanaru's itinerary for his 1907 trip to England and Scotland. The poster features a colour woodblock-printed floral frame and movable-type printed text. Although the state ...

Paris: P. Gayda, 1903.

A souvenir for a fête celebrating Franco-Italian relations, on crêped paper and with decorative margins woodblock-printed in Japan. The margins - four humorous "comic strips" read right to left and top to bottom - feature what appear to be sisters having their ponytails tied together by a child, a man falling for a child's prank and ...

Kedamono Shiyo Shoku-zukushi ["The Various Jobs of Beasts"]

[Utagawa], Koyoshimori [illustrated by].

[Edo (Tōkyō)]: Jōkin [Jōshūya Kinzō], Keiō 3 [1867].

A satirical giga print on the daily jobs of animals by ...

Kokutēru: kongōshu chōgōhō ["Cocktails: methods of mixing liquor"]

Akiyama, Tokuzō [compiled by].

Tōkyō: Akiyama Ryōri Kenkyūjo, Shōwa 4 [1929]. Fourth edition.

The first cocktail book published in Japan, with several original recipes inspired by Japanese themes. The novel and Japanese TV drama "The Emperor's Cook" was based on the life of the au ...

Musume no Hitokoroshi ["The Murderous Girl"]

[Author/s unidentified].

Morioka, Iwate: Sō Suekichi, Meiji 25 [1892].

A counting song in twenty verses about Ohana-san, a murderous girl who prowled the Hibara Pass in Yonezawa. An example of a kazoe-uta from the mid Meiji period, probably kappazuri (stencil) printed.

One volume, presumed ...

"鏡山舊錦画"

[Yō, Yōtai (original text by)].

[Ōsaka: Ono'oka Jinzaburō, ca. 1900-20s?].

In The Women's Chushingura, a play first performed in 1782, the heroine Ohatsu, the loyal maidservant of the middle-rank lady-inwaiting Onoe, takes revenge on Iwafuji, the senior lady-in-waiting, for causing the suicide of Onoe. Rebecca Corbett notes that the pl ...

Berlin: Julius Rosenthal Filiale, 1892.

A crêped poster for a series of events, including an operetta, ballet, and music, at the Unter den Linden theatre, with decorative margins woodblockprinted in Japan and text printed with movable type in Berlin. The events were directed by Alois and Rudolf Ronacher, and featured "The World in Illustrations and Dance", with ima ...

[Three postcards designed to commemorate a track-andfield event]

[Illustrator/s unidentified].

[Kanazawa]: Shikō Rikakai, [ca. 1925].

Three abstract postcards designed by the physical science club of the Shikōtō Gakkō high school to commemorate a track-and-field event. The high school was founded in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, in 1887, and was known fo ...

[Three woodblocks] 

[Komatsuya (one block-face illustrated by)?].

[Japan: publishers unidentified, ca. Edo to Meiji period (1750-1910s)?].

A collection of three woodblocks used for printing in the Edo and Meiji periods. The earliest woodblock features an illustration on one side and part of another work on the other. The latter, evidently an earlier w ...

[Title unidentified]

[Artist unidentified].

[Tōkyō: Chūō Hyōron-sha, ca. mid-Shōwa period (1950-60s?)].

A small printing block for a strip comic that probably appeared in a publication by the Chuō Hyōron-sha (the Chuo University Review), as this company name is inscribed on the side of the block. The strip seems to show a man being thrown out of an o ...

Tōshitsu ["Ceramics and Lacquerware"]

Nakamura, Shūho [illustrated by].

Kyōto: Gōmei Gaisha Unsōdō, Meiji 43 [1910].

An album of twenty double-page spreads of colour woodblock-printed designs for ceramics and lacquerware, by Nakamura Shūho. Shūho is described in the preface as a "graduate of the design department of the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts" ...

Tsuki to Supponchi ["The Moon and a Supponchi"]

Shinoda, Kyūjirō [edited by]; Mantei, Ōga, Kanagaki, Robun, Baitei, Kinga ... [et al.] [supplemented by], Seisei [Kawanabe], Kyōsai, Tsukioka, Yoshitoshi ... [et al.] [illustrated by]. 

Tōkyō: Kōshūsha, Meiji 11-12 [1878-1879].

Issues 1 to 20 of Tsuki to Supponchi, a satirical newspaper edited by Shin ...

Tsūzoku Isoppu Monogatari ["Aesop's Popular Fables"]

Aesop [original fables by]; Watanabe, Tazunu [translated by]; Fujisawa, Bainan, Sakaki, Kōson, Kawanabe, Kyōsai, [Tenniel, Sir John], [Wolf, Joseph] [illustrated by]. 

Tōkyō: Watanabe Tazunu [printing blocks owned by], Yamashiroya Sahē [distributed by], Meiji 5-6 [1872-1873].

The most widely kn ...

[Two albums of woodblock-printed ephemera]

[Illustrators unidentified].

[Tōkyō: Miyake Mokuhan Surisakuho, ca. mid-Shōwa period (1950s)].

Two albums of tipped-in ephemera, including menus, invitations, advertisements, and New Year's cards, woodblock printed for a range of Tokyo-based clients by the Miyake Woodblock Printing Store. Several prints provid ...

[Two kamishimo jackets and two pairs of kamishimo trousers]

[Creator/s unidentified].

[Japan, ca. late Meiji to early Shōwa period (1900-30s)?].

Kamishimo garments, ceremonial or formal wear for men, were used predominantly by samurai in the Edo period, but continue to be used in Japan to this day for special occasions. This collection includes two naga-ka ...

[Untitled folding object]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. Meiji period (1870-1910s?)].

An unusual folding object with small opening pockets or compartments, constructed from a colour woodblock-printed omocha-e toy print. Genjikō (Genji Incense) patterns appear on the inner panels of the object and on the eri collar of the elegant woman adorning the fro ...

[Untitled kimono featuring lobsters]

[Creator unidentified].

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

A stunning uchikake or kaidori - kimono worn over a kosode or furisode by a bride on her wedding day - patterned with Ise-ebi (Japanese spiny lobsters). The lining of the uchikake is made from red and pink fabrics, the latter patt ...

[Untitled print]

Hisashi [illustrated by].

[Japan, ca. late Taishō to early Shōwa period (1920-1930s)?].

A print - probably a halftone - featuring an elegant Japanese woman playing cards. She sports a modern hairstyle, ruby red lips, and an obi that sparkles with a silver pigment. The artist's name, Hisashi, is printed in the upper left corner. 

[Untitled scroll of feather patterns]

[Creator unidentified].

[Japan, ca. mid to late Edo period (1800-1840s)?]. In manuscript.

A handscroll recording 42 types of feathers used in arrow-making. Each illustration is captioned with a number and the name of the pattern depicted. Most of the feathers used in arrow-making in Japan were taken from birds of prey, ...

[Untitled set of fan designs]

[Suzuki], Kason, [Takeuchi], Seihō ... [et al.] [illustrated by].

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

A set of 21 designs for fan papers, with illustrations by artists including Suzuki Kason ("Kwasson") and Takeuchi Seihō. Some fans have been woodblock printed, others lithographical ...

[Untitled set of scrolls featuring a dragon and a tiger]

Shōseki, Sanjin [Kose, Shōseki] [signed by].

[Japan, ca. Meiji period (1870-1910s?)]. In manuscript.

A dynamic rendering of a traditional tiger and dragon pairing. The tiger crouches on rocks surrounding a river while the dragon flies above tumultuous waves through menacing clouds. Just as the body o ...

[Untitled surimono]

Ka'an [Kita], Busei [signed and sealed in the block by].

[Edo (Tōkyō), ca. late Edo period (1840-50s)].

A flower emerges from a hanging ceramic vase laid on the ground. Ka'an (Kita) Busei (1776-1857) was a nanga painter born in Edo. He studied under Tani Bunchō and was a friend of Watanabe Kazan, Kyokutei Bakin, Kuwagata Keisai ...

[Untitled surimono]

[Sōen], Kabocha [signed and sealed by].

[Edo (Tōkyō)], Tenpo Mizunoetatsu [1832]. 

Courtiers, two of whom are pictured holding a tray of mochi balls, gather around a fire on a chilly night. Harvested rice is pictured in the background. The artist, Kabocha (1777-1846), is also known as Sōen. 

One ōbōsho s ...

Ushiya Zōdan Aguranabe: Ichimei Doronken ["Beef-Shop Small-Talk: Cross-Legged (at a Beef) Pot"]

Kanagaki, Robun [text by]; Ikkeisai [Utagawa], Yoshiiku [illustrated by]. 

Tōkyō: Seishidō, [preface dated Meiji 4 (1871)]. 

The shohen (first series) of Robun's famous satire on the perceived sophistication of Western customs. In the work, he ri ...

Usumurasaki Genji no Somewake ["Dyeing of the Lilac Genji"]

[Toyohara], Kunichika [illustrated by]; Ōta, Komakichi [printing blocks cut by].

Fukagawa Takabashi (Edo): Etsuka, Bunkyū 2 [1862].

A fascinating triptych featuring characters from The Tale of Genji examining a newly purchased sugoroku game sheet based on famous kabuki actors. Searches for the ti ...

Yaso Taiji Baka Shinnyū ["Extermination of the Christians: Infiltration of the Idiots"]

Kato, Tomisaburō [edited by].

Ōsaka: Katō Tomisaburō, Meiji 14 [1881]. "New edition".

A mitate banzuke (sheet that ranks people and behaviours in a parody of a sumo ranking sheet) listing the behaviours of Japanese Christians the compiler considers "idiotic". While th ...

[London] : Ye Sette, 1892. 

The menu of the ‘Japanese Night’ dinner held in 1892 by members of Ye Sette of Odd Volumes (an English club of bibliophiles founded by bookdealer Bernard Quaritch in 1878) and attended by many members of the Japan Society. The night is known to have been attended by, amongst others, Narinori Okoshi, Cap ...