First edition complete with its 72 pages of Japanese texts in colors bound at rear.
Contemporary binding in half blue shagreen, spine with five raised bands richly decorated with grotesque compartments, double gilt fillet on marbled paper boards, top edge gilt retaining deckled edges. Corners bumped (one slightly cracked) and surface wear.
Rare.
Rare suite of woodcuts by Itchô Hanabusa (英一蝶) on Japanese folk tales, printed in black ink. Only one volume of a three-volume set, possible 19th-century reprint.
Bound in Japanese style, pages bound by a seam, blue soft cover with title label, folds, small stains and lacks of blue paper to corners, ink stain in title piece not affecting the text.
Itchô Hanabusa was part of the Kanō school and studied under Kanō Yasunobu, however he rejected this training to become a renowned painter and calligrapher.
Illustrations of Japanese legends with genre scenes, animals and flowers. The technique of Ukiyo-e, or Japanese printmaking, is very close t
First edition of the French translation, one of 75 numbered copies on Rives laid paper, the deluxe issue.
A fine copy.
