Ehon Kaikei Zan (Jyō) 絵本會稽山 上.

Item #90867

Ehon Kaikei Zan (Jyō) 絵本會稽山 上. 22 x 15.5cm book string-bound Japanese-style, fukuro-toji. Decorated front and rear wrappers with title slip on left hand side of front wrapper. 5 cho, and an initial, unnumbered cho, of color woodcuts and Japanese text. The final cho is pasted down onto the inside rear wrapper. The character Take/ Bu 武 (warrior or military) is printed on the hashira. A fascinating and early example of Kappazuri Hanga 合羽摺版画, which starts with a woodblock for the black sections with color added with a stencil.

The title could refer to the well-known play by Chikamatsu Monzaemon 近松門左衛門 (1653-1725) entitled Soga Kaikeizan 曽我會稽山 (The Soga Brothers at Kaikei Mountain) written in 1718. The book depicts a battle on land and sea between warriors in Japan. One section mentions Mega (also Tsumashika) 妻鹿, the area that is now the southern part of Hyogo prefecture and Himeji city. This book is a very similar style and very close in size to an example dated 1801 found in “The Story of Kappazuri From My Collection” by Akifumi Nakade. See page 194-5, plate 116.

Wear and dirt staining of wrappers with worming and ink stain on bottom. Front inside wrapper appears to be missing a page. Extensive worming in margins, rips and wear to pages, thumbing at bottom corners of pages.

Price: $650.00