JICHOSAI, MATSUYA.

Ehon Kotozugai.

Nagoya (Kajita Kansuke), after 1805. 3 vols. in 1. 28ff., with 24 illus. (all but 1 double-page). 4to. Orange wraps., stitched as issued, with embossed designs on both covers. The first edition of the work is traditionally given as Osaka, 1805, but Hillier suggests that it may have been earlier; this later Nagoya issue combines the three volumes in one. Ehon Kotozugai (‘A Picture Book of Counterparts’) is one of Jichosai’s two masterpieces. “Jichosai was, in fact, an artist of exceptional calibre and one of the most notable figures of the Osaka cultural scene in the late eighteenth century.... His own paintings and his prints in book form combine to create an image of a man of subtle, sceptical intelligence, delightfully irreligious and nonconformist, and with an artistry that has a special tang because of his scoffing and burlesque.... The Ehon Kotozugai drawings are only superficially like true Toba-e. The figures are simply drawn, faces and limbs mere outlines and the clothes solid black, except for the white lines on black indicating the folds; but the limbs are fairly normal, and the faces more recognizably human even when they are grimacing, as they often are. The events and actions depicted are less fantastical than in Toba-e, and in many cases the humour comes from the candid portrayal of people when they are off-guard, like the singers caught as they strain, with closed eyes, at their excruciating top note, or the three nightbirds who catch sight of the long-necked snail in the beam of their lantern.... In the early years of the nineteenth century, there seems to have been a wave of searching, but not solemn, self-questioning among the literate section of the people in the Maigata especially, and the books of Shuho and Jichosai are typical of the light-hearted arraignment of the foibles and vices that was being expressed in verse and picture” (Hillier). Covers slightly worn; neat old mend to tear in first leaf.

• USD 900.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: B06722-1

• bookseller: Ars Libri Ltd. (USA)