KITAO SEKKOSAI (TOKINOBU) (Fl. 1745-1780)

Details

KITAO SEKKOSAI (TOKINOBU) (Fl. 1745-1780)
Saishiki gasen [A Selection of Coloured Drawings]

3 volumes (complete) with original pale grey covers and title slips with the title Saishiki gasen printed in black comprising
Volume 1, 14 pages, a 2 page preface dated Meiwa hinoto (1767), signed Sekkosai, 12 un-numbered sheets, a frontispiece (fukujuso: a plant and a red sun), 22 pages of coloured illustrations, four of which cover double-pages
Volume 2, 12 un-numbered sheets, a frontispiece depicting Daikoku's head and shoulders, 23 pages of coloured illustrations, 2 of which cover double-pages
Volume 3, 13 un-numbered sheets, a frontispiece depicting Jurojin, 23 pages of coloured illustrations, 11 of which cover double-pages (one of which is heightened by the application of gold and silver) a final single page, a colophon on the back of the last sheet attached to the cover giving the date Meiwa hinoto I toshi kugatsu, (1767) the publishers are named as Shibukawa Daizo of Osaka, Konan Shiroemon of Kyoto and Subaru Heisuke of Edo, exceptionally fine impression of one of the first books to combine the use of kappazuri stencil printing and fuki-bokashi stippling effects with the use of added gold and silver, very fresh colours, slight soiling and rubbing, Huguette Berès seal
26.8 x 17.4cm. (3)

Provenance

Collection Hubert (Paris, 1928, no.36)
Collection Hachette (1954, no.333)
Huguette Berès (Sotheby's Paris, 27th November 2002, Lot 204)

Literature

Hizo Ukiyo-e Taikan, Berès Collection pl. 250-252, p.279

Lot Essay

An extremely rare example of one of the masterpieces of Japanese book-printing depicting a variety of flowers, plants, fruits, shells and fish. For further reading on this book see Louise Norton Brown, Block-printing and Book Illustration in Japan, (London and New York, 1924), p.127

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