AKATSUKI NO KANENARI 暁鐘成, using the pen-name Gyōseiō 暁晴翁, & illustrator Hanzan Matsukawa 松川半山Biblio.com
Yamato Kokoro shomeikahÅgin ã‚„ã¾ã¨ã“ã‚ã‚諸åå®¶èŠ³åŸ Sweetheart of Japan. Praise from Famous Persons
11135Four double-page & nine full-page color-printed illus. and ten pages of text with background coloring. 31.5 folding leaves. Small 8vo orig. semi-stiff patterned wrappers new stitching. Osaka: UnkindÅ é›²éŒ¦å ‚ 1857.<br /> <BR> <BR> An early printing of this beautifully illustrated book with considerable blind embossing. The text and the illustrations have been printed on thickish paper leaving deep impressions and giving a 3-D appearance. The subject of this book is a famous Osaka courtesan Shikishima of the Shinmachi pleasure quarter. For many years she worked in the KyÅya “tea house†until she married a lacquer artisan. The book portrays her as a symbol of refinement and high taste serving as a muse for painters poets and celebrities. The text is rich with puns and double meanings.<br /> <BR> <BR> Akatsuki no Kanenari 1793-1860 was a prolific Osaka author painter and illustrator producing books that blended humor social commentary and historical themes. Hanzan 1818-82 “was Osaka’s artist for all occasions prepared to undertake whatever the publishers demanded for verse-books comic picture-books and especially views of Osaka and its neighbourhood.â€â€“Hillier. Brown considered him “one of the best of the Osaka illustrators of the years just before the Restoration.â€<br /> <BR> <BR> Very good copy with the original printed wrapper. Minor worming throughout well repaired. Preserved in a chitsu. The title-slip for the upper cover is not present.<br /> <BR> <BR> ⧠For author & artist see Brown Block Printing & Book Illustration in Japan pp. 79-80 and Hillier The Art of the Japanese Book p. 861. unknown
