Description:
Japanese binding (ugly repaired); 23 double leafs numbered 1-22 and an unnumbered title woodblock print. 5 pages of text and 41 pages of woodblock prints. Woodblocks are mostly on double pages. Size: 25 x 17 cm; As always with Japanese books from 18th century, some wear and a little worming; due to the outstanding rarity of this edition, a book still worth of collecting.
Hanabusa Itchō (1652 - 1724) was a Japanese painter, calligrapher, and haiku poet. He originally trained in the Kanō style, under Kanō Yasunobu, but ultimately rejected that style and became a literati (bunjin).
Born in Kyoto and the son of a physician, he was originally named Taga Shinkō. He studied Kanō painting, but soon abandoned the school and his master to form his own style, which would come to be known as the Hanabusa school.
He was exiled in 1698, for parodying one of the shōgun's concubines in painting, to the island of Miyake-jima; he would not return until 1710. That year, in Edo, the artist would formally take… Read More