Tokyo International Antiquarian Book Fair

We are exhibiting at the Tokyo International Antiquarian Book Fair 2010, March 11 - 13, at Izumi Garden Gallery, Tokyo. Details at  http://www.abaj.gr.jp/index_e.htm 

Please stop by and visit if you are attending!

Catalogue 40A, Japan and East Asia, now online

Announcing our newest Japan and East Asia Catalogue, no. 40A:

Here is a diverse collection of recently acquired material, running the gamut from useful 20th century reference works on the arts and languages of east Asia to woodblock-illustrated Japanese ehon and design books, prewar avant-garde and modernist fine art, posters and advertising art. From botanicals and birds to social satire and illustrated poetry with a bit of photography included, the visual feast goes on. Click here for the catalogue. Enjoy!

New East Asian Art Reference list online

We've been mining our shelves, organizing our backlist by subject area. This group of titles, mostly references to the art world of East Asia, includes books long out-of-print and sought-for. Take a look, please, and let us know if there is anything here that pleases you and if there are other works you are seeking in the field. Click here for the list.

East Asian Photography catalogue online

http://www.rarebook.com/eastasianphotography.html
click for catalogue

We are back with a selection of a few items from the field of Japanese photography. As the Japanese were interested quite early on in the archival and then the artistic possibilities of photography, the collector may find worthy items dating from the 1860's to the present day. There are a few rarities within, but mostly a range of fun and interesting books expressive in yet another form of the Japanese aesthetic.

From the 19th century, among other items, there is a lovely album in beautiful condition and with perfect hand-coloring by the important photographer Kusakabe Kimbei. The prewar avant-garde is represented with an unusual photo book by the important artist Onchi Koshiro. The postwar era witnessed an enormous development of photography in Japan and we are presenting here a few representative examples of some interesting work - not the high spots which have exploded in value the last few years, rather works by lesser-known but intriguing artists or more modest works by the masters.

Photography is enormously enjoyable and we hope to be able to bring you more items on a regular basis.

Charles Vilnis

20th Century East Asian Books

click here for catalogue

The creation of useful organizing elements in the field of Japanese illustration is often quite arbitrary. May we plead guilty to that fault in creating this list of Japanese illustrated books of the 20th century. Lumping together books created in various media, books deriving from sources as disparate as Ukiyo-e and the European avant-garde and many schools and traditions in between may confuse as much as it orders, but there it is - the 20th was a messy century. What unites the books is their essential Japanese aesthetic. They play well together, at least as we see them.

Charles Vilnis

Classic Ehon, Illustrated Books and Maps

Click for catalogue: http://www.rarebook.com/ehon1.html


Greetings,


Spring brings rain, flowers and, at the Boston Book Company, catalogues.


Following up on our design book list which we published a few weeks ago, we have created a catalogue of traditional ehon, and included maps, botanicals [birds and flowers], fairy tales and original paintings currently in our inventory. There are some true rarities and icons of the illustrated book genre, works we are all familiar with from their appearance in the wonderful books done by Jack Hillier, Roger Keyes and others - kyokabon such as the Utamaro insect book in an early, lovely edition, painting manuals such as the Taigado Gahô and pure picture books like the Sekien Gafu, the Sônan Gafu and the Kiyonaga Ehon Muchi Bukuro. There are Kabuki classics like the Nendaiki, fan and scroll paintings by Shijô school masters and a wonderful set of small sliding doors painted by Keibun. Besides the Edo era material, there is a large triptych painting of Sapporo in a Nihonga style, as well as transitional works by Seihô and others which round out the traditional aesthetic in its 20th century manifestation.


There is really too much to discuss in this brief introduction. Please enjoy the accompanying list, which is being issued as a web catalogue, as well as a printed text. We will be happy to provide more information or images, should you be interested in any of the items within.


We are off to London for the ILAB Book Fair at Olympia next week, so do get back to us as soon as you are able.


Best wishes,


Charles Vilnis

New East Asian Design list online

We are pleased to announce our new online list of East Asian Design books.

A message from Charles Vilnis:

Hello,

Besides my interest in classic ehon picture books and Japanese botanicals, I have been pursuing Japanese design books of the 20th century for many years now, focusing on a few main areas.

There are the kimono-oriented hinagata-bon, largely done in Kyoto from 1890-1935, printed in color and published by Unkindô, Unsôdô, Happôdô, and a few other high-quality printing houses. They restored the heritage of hinagata-bon kimono design works from the 17th and 18th century, which had been created then by such important Kansai ukiyo-e artists as Moronobu and Sukenobu.

In the 20th century, Kamisaka Sekka, Furuya Kôrin, Kaigai Tennen, Tsuda Seifû, Nishida Ungai and many others, besides contributing to the kimono design works, also produced "pure design" albums [zuancho] with collections of wonderfully creative designs for design's sake, largely printed in color woodblock by Unkindô, Unsôdô, etc..

Finally, there are the design books which stray from the dominant medium of color woodblock to employ lithography, stencil, silkscreen, linoleum printing and every imaginable hybrid technique possible, printed largely in Tokyo on every conceivable paper surface, from washi handmade paper to newsprint. I have found wonderful treasures of design, albums by Sugiura Hisui, Yamana Ayao, Fujii Tatsukichi and many others, as well as guides to industrial design and advertising art from the Taisho and early Showa periods of the 'teens, 20's and 30's. All in all, the works present a wonderful vade mecum to a world that is only now being recollected some 65 years after its utter destruction.

We have put together a list of items in stock that you might like from those three areas. Enjoy.

Korin Moyo

We are pleased to offer:

[DESIGN BOOK] FURUYA Korin, artist. KORIN MOYO. No colophon: [Kyoto: Yamada Unsodo, c. 1907] 25 x 35.5 cm, oblong folding album printed in color woodcut, in cloth over board covers with paper label. Covers titled in the usual hentai-gana. Preface by Furuya. The album consists of 21 oblong spreads lavishly printed in colors and metallic inks. This would seem to be a variant issue of the 2 volume KORIN MOYO, published by Unsodo in 1907, where the 25 double page spreads in 2 volumes were folded in half and issued as small orihon albums. Fairly well printed and overprinted in metallic inks and bold colors. A good example of the Neo-Rimpa style, here available in a full page, unfolded version. A very unusual format for this important work. [Ryerson p.363] $1,400.00 #85065 Contact us to order or enquire.

Catalogue 39A Japan and Asia now online

We are pleased to announce our new Catalogue 39A Japan and Asia, featuring 104 items. Please feel free to visit and enquire. Additional images are available upon request.

Catalogue 38A Japan and Asia online

Friends,

We are pleased to announce our new catalogue 38A, Japan and Asia, featuring 147 items. The catalogue is now online and can be viewed at http://www.rarebook.com/cat38/cat38ad.html. We look forward to any questions or comments. Contact us directly to order or inquire.

Japanese Commercial Art: 24 volumes

We have just been cataloging our new acquisitions from Japan. This will be of special interest to those who appreciate Japanese commercial design:

[COMMERCIAL ART] GENDAI SHÔGYÔ BIJUTSU ZENSHÛ THE COMPLETE COMMERCIAL ARTIST 24 volumes. Tokyo, ARS, Shôwa 3 [1928] 24 large slender 8vo. vols., this edition bound in red cloth, gilt, with bi-lingual titling. A remarkable compendium, heavily illustrated in color and b+w, exploring the whole world of commercial art, in Japan and abroad, for the professional. With remarkable articles by the leading proponents of Japanese advertising and commercial art of the day. One occasionally finds odd volumes of this thematically organized work, but it is very unusual thus, complete. Essential reference to late Taishô, early Shôwa culture. Complete, very good. SOLD.



We will be issuing an new Japanese and East Asian catalogue near the end of the year. To receive notification of the publication of the electronic version, please contact us at eacatalogue@rarebook.com with your email address.

Japanese photography books

With the current market strong for photo illustrated books, we thought it might be a good time to draw attention to our selection of modern Japanese photography monographs. Many of our books are signed by the photographer; all are in very good to fine condition.

Featured here is an oversize Moriyama Daidô monograph, Daidô hysteric no. 6 1994, published in 1993 by Hysteric Glamour. This limited edition features over 360 full page (many double-page) b/w images of Daidô's Japan - dark, grainy and ominous. Very good condition with only some moderate wear to cover. Offered at $975.00.

Also among our cache are books by:
Hosoe Eikoh: Eikoh Hosoe (Aperture Masters of Photography), signed, fine, $160.00
Kurihara Tatsuo: Okiri o Hibi no Kate ni Gakusei Tôsô no Kiroku, very good, $150.00
Moriyama Daidô: Imitation, signed, near fine, $685.00
Naitô Tadayuki: Sakura-cosm, signed, fine, $175.00
Naraki Itsuro: The Dancers, signed, fine, $250.00
Naraki Itsuro: Nomads, fine, $175.00
Tanaka Ichirô: Shashin Nichijô 1935-1990, signed, fine, $175.00

You can search our stock of Japanese photo monographs by visiting our website's search page and entering the keywords EA PHOTOGRAPHY in the keywords field. We also buy similar monographs, especially if signed, in very good or better condition.

Daidô hysteric no. 6 1994