Kiho Gafu.
Kyoto, Japan: 1827. Small quarto. 2, 31, 4ff. Illustrated with thirty color wood-block prints by ukiyo-e artist Kawamura Kiho. Kiho, who was also known as Shun, Goitsu, and Chikurikwan, was the adopted son and acknowledged disciple of artist Kawamura Bumpo. Both Bumpo and Kiho are stylistically similar to the the Shijo school, which preferred gray and black lines highlighted with pale blushes of color over the more vivid ukiyo-e style popular at the end of the eighteenth century. These light colors are perfectly suited to this sensitive collection, most of which illustrate simple and quiet scenes from everyday life. Farmers and fisherman are interspersed with portraits of plants and animals. Of especial interest are three prints of people reading—a farmer bundling rice while reading a book laid open on the ground, a bearded man huddling beneath a lamp, and man lounging beneath a full moon. The images are preceded by a four-page preface and one page of calligraphy, and followed by a closing note, eight pages of advertisements, and a colophon. In the original blue covers patterned with waves of mica, with a title label to the upper cover. Overall light soiling and wear to covers, with minor worming to inside covers and last two leaves; red stamp to lower right and small loss to fore-edge of front cover; unobtrusive ink inscription to inside front cover; re-sewn with new thread and housed in new chitsu. A beautiful book by an under-appreciated artist. Item #27008
(Ryerson, p. 388; Brown, p. 105; Mitchell, pp. 360-361, Example A; Franklin, pp. 75 & 79).
Price: $3,500.00