Bikō Zukan

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Hasegawa, Keika [illustrated by].

Ōsaka : Aoki Tsunesaburō, Meiji 27 [1894]. First and only known edition.

A two-volume album of colour woodblock-printed designs by acclaimed artist Hasegawa Keika. Each volume contains 50 designs, two to a page, featuring motifs of flowers, plants, fans, birds, rivers, ships, shells, flags, and so on. The patterns were designed for nishijin, a type of traditional high quality textile named after the Kyoto district where it was made. Nishijin fabrics were woven from colourful yarn into decorative patterns using particularly laborious procedures. This pair of books was published during the “second wave” of nishijin, which began in the 1870s after trade opened with Europe. While most sets of this album appear to have been published by Torii Matashichi in Kyoto, this set has been published by Aoki Tsunesaburō (owner of the publishing firm “Aoki Sūzandō”) in Osaka. Keika, the artist, was most famous for his three-volume set of colour woodblock-printed books titled Keika Hyakugiku (“One Hundred Chrysanthemums by Keika”). A beautiful printing of a scarce set of nishijin fabric designs by Keika, published during the prime of his artistic abilities. Only two sets (one incomplete) were located at foreign institutions in OCLC.   

Original wrappers, a little worn and with some ink stains and minor scrapes. Non-original binding string to volume one, hanagire (fabric corner-covers) worn off. Volume one also lacking the blank upper paste-down. Light thumbing and occasional small ink stains to margins. Two centimetre hole to corner of leaf 14 in volume one. Overall near fine. 2 v., complete. [15, 14] leaves. 15.3 x 22.2 cm. Text in Japanese.

Bikō Zukan
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