Natsu no Sugatami (Full-Length Mirror of Summer's Beauty)

ENQUIRE

Natsu no Sugatami ["Full-Length Mirror of Summer's Beauty"]

Nagata, Sobu [edited by]. 

Nagoya: Fusō Shinbunsha, Meiji 30 [1897]. 

A supplement published to commemorate the 3000th issue of the Nagoya-based newspaper Fusō Shinbun. The booklet adapts the popular Sanjūni Mensō ("Thirty-Two Amusing Expressions") trope and was probably inspired by Kobayashi Kiyochika's Shinpan Sanjūni-sō ("Newly Published Thirty-Two Faces") series published over a decade earlier. Kiyochika (1847-1915) produced comical illustrations in the ponchi style for many Japanese newspapers including Maru Maru Chinbun. Widespread claims that Kiyochika studied Western-style painting under the English artist Charles Wirgman, the illustrator for The Japan Punch, and Japanese-style painting under Kyōsai and Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891) are points of contention among art historians. Created by an unidentified artist, all illustrations in this booklet allude to summer and are accompanied by short, humorous poems. This publication demonstrates the enduring popularity of the use of toba-ponchi-e illustrations in humorous Meiji period periodicals. No copies traced in OCLC.

One karitoji-bound volume, complete, on single leaves. Original wrappers browned and lightly soiled. Offsetting and browning to leaves. Chips to leaf extremities and spine. [16] leaves. 18.2 x 12.7 cm. 

Natsu no Sugatami (Full-Length Mirror of Summer's Beauty)
SOLD