"Understanding Japanese Woodblock-Printed Illustrated Books offers a wider understanding and appreciation of the illustrated books produced in Japan between 1603 and 1912. It is a valuable tool for scholars of early modern Japanese art and literature and a broad range of other disciplines who wish to integrate the content of Japanese illustrated books into their teaching and research. As a handbook aimed at collectors, curators and librarians, it is also an essential resource to assist in evaluating, describing and conserving the books in their care. The background essays, a detailed glossary and case studies are equally of interest to students of the history and art of the book, publishing, printing and book illustration."--

Originally published: London: British Museum Press, c2010.

Hokusai was one of the great masters of the Japanese woodblock print. His exquisite compositions and dynamic use of color set him apart from other printmakers, and his unequalled genius influenced both Japanese and a whole generation of Western artists. Now available for the first time in paperback, this book reproduces the artist's finest works in plates that convey the full variety of his invention, each of which is provided with an informative commentary. In his introduction, Hokusai expert Matthi Forrer traces the artist's career and defines his place in relation to his contemporaries and to the history of Japanese art. Examining all genres of the artist's prolific output -- including images of city life, maritime scenes, landscapes, views of Mount Fuji, bird and flower illustrations, literary scenes, waterfalls and bridges -- Hokusai, Prints and Drawings provides a detailed account of the artist's genius.

The Japanese woodblock print is a phenomenon with no Western equivalent, one where breathtaking landscapes exist alongside blush-inducing erotica; where demons and otherworldly creatures torment the living; and where sumo wrestlers, kabuki actors, and courtesans are rock stars. This condensed edition lifts the veil on a much-loved but little-...

Numata Kashû's wonderfully lifelike images of birds and flowers first appeared in a three-volume, 1883 portfolio. His woodblock prints were so popular that dealers sold them individually, destroying most complete sets. A collector's delight, this exquisite edition reprints a 1930s facsimile, alive with 150 color illustrations of the highest quality.

Colorists of all ages will appreciate these graceful courtesans, mountainous landscapes, and other images from the woodblock tradition. Thirty meticulous renderings include masterly works by Kunisada, Hiroshige, Utamaro, Eisen, and Toyokuni.

The young prince Osamu is dragged from his palace bed in the dead of night and told to flee for his life. With only his nurse's daughter, Lissa, to help him survive, he is thrust from his pampered existence into a hostile, snowy world - where the secret armies of the hidden kingdom are waiting for him to lead them . . .

V.1. Historical perspectives. The Edo period, 1603-1868 / Harold Bolitho ; The Meiji to Taisho ; eras, 1868-1926 / Ann Waswo -- The history of Japanese prints -- The Edo period, 1603-1868. The roots of ukiyo-e: its beginnings to the mid-eighteenth century / Donald Jenkins ; Ukiyo-e book illustration / Yu-Ying Brown ; Shunga in the Edo period / Timon Screech ; The Kanbun Bijin: setting the stage for ukiyo-e bijinga / Kobayashi Tadashi ; Chinese woodblock prints and their influence on Japanese ukiyo-e / Hans Bjarne Thomsen ; The birth of the full-color print: Suzuki Harunobu and his age, early 1740s to early 1780s / David Waterhouse ; The Yoshiwara and ukiyo-e / Cecilia Segawa Seigle ; Mitate in ukiyo-e prints / Ellis Tinios ; Kabuki: its history as seen in ukiyo-e / Samuel L. Leiter ; Kitagawa Utamaro and his contemporaries, 1780-1804 / Julie Nelson Davis ; Sumo prints / Lawrence Bickford ; Kyōka and ukiyo-e print designers / John T. Carpenter ; The publisher Tsutaya Jūzaburō and ukiyo-e publishing / Suzuki Toshiyuki ; Ukiyo-e meisho-e / Gary Hickey ; Diversification and further popularization of the full-colour woodblock print, c. 1804-68 / Ellis Tinios ; Surimono / Roger S. Keyes ; Nagasaki-e / Martha Chaiklin ; Kamigata-e: the prints of Osaka and Kyoto / Kitagawa Hiroko ; Shini-e / Melinda Takeuchi ; Warrior prints of the first half of the nineteenth century and the Suikoden / B.W. Robinson -- The Meiji era, 1868-1912. Woodblock prints of the Meiji era / Helen Merritt ; The maintenance of tradition in the face of contemporary demands: a reassessment of Meiji prints / Oikawa Shigeru ; Yokahama-e / Helen Merritt, Oikawa Shigeru ; Photography and ukiyo-e prints / Margarita Winkel ; Woodblock prints as a medium of reportage: the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars / Louise Virgin -- The late Meiji to Taishō eras, 1900s to 1926. Prints and modernity: developments in the early twentieth century / Kendall Brown ; The publisher Watanabe Shozoburo and the Shin-hanga movement: its beginnings until the 1930s / Abe Setsuko ; Creative print (Sosaku-hanga) magazines / Chiaki Ajioka -- Commerce and constraint in the world of publishing. The publishing trade / P.F. Kornicki ; Censorship and ukiyo-e prints / Sarah E. Thompson -- Materials and techniques: issues of conservation and collecting. Materials and techniques / Shiho Sasaki ; The care of Japanese prints / Pauline Webber ; Collecting ukiyo-e prints: issues of quality, condition and rarity / Chris Uhlenbeck ; The original versus the genuine / Chris Uhlenbeck -- The history of collecting Japanese prints. Ukiyo-e collecting in Japan / Oikawa Shigeru ; Japanese prints in Europe, 1860-1930 / Max Put ; Postwar ukiyo-e collecting in Europe / Robert Schaap ; Ukiyo-e print collecting in America / Julia Meech.V.2. Reference section -- Artist index -- Lineage charts -- Chronological/historical tables -- Map of former Japanese provinces and the Gokaido -- Signature facsimiles -- Censor seals -- Publisher seals -- Appendices. List of works released by Shin-hanga publisher Watanabe Shozaburo ; Pre-nishiki-e and Nishiki-e formats ; Elements of a print -- Concordance of artists' names (with Japanese characters).505.