Yoshimura, Saisei [Yoshimura Utagawa (1846 – 1887)].

Jurui Gafu [Album of Animals].

First and only edition. Tokyo, Ohashido, no. year [c.1880]. Octavo. 20 pages plus rear cover [Illustrated Cover plus 19 illustrated pages including illustrated pastedown]. Illustrated cover with an Edo-period hunting-scene in ukiyo-e style. The booklet itself illustrated with polychrome woodblock-illustrations in colour, showing 51 animal species. Illustrated softcover. Very good condition with only minor signs of wear and some fraying to the outer borders. One corner with paper-loss. A very, very rare publication, dated in ink by its previous owner “Brighton, 1881”.

“This book was published in the early Meiji era, the exact year is unknown, by a publisher called Ohashido in Tokyo. All 20 pages of the book are polychrome woodblock-print illustrations. Each page is divided into two or three panes, and one species of animal appears in each pane with its name. In total there are 51 species depicted. The front cover of the book portrays an image of a hunting scene of the Edo period in the ukiyo-e style. The cover also shows the title of the book, the name of the publisher and the name of the artist as ‘Saisei Yoshimura’ which indicates that the artist is Utagawa Yoshimura (1846-1887).
Utagawa Yoshimura was an ukiyo-e artist who was active between the late Edo period and the early Meiji era. He was a pupil of Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and named (Yoshimura) at first [undisplayable Japanese Character]. One of the kanji characters of his name was changed to [undisplayable Japanese character] (it is also pronounced as Yoshimura) from Meiji (1876). He used the pseudonym Seisai. On some occasions he used the surname Ito instead of Utagawa, so his name sometimes appears as Ito Seisai. A database of Tobunken (Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties) indicates that Ito Seisai lived in Hasegawacho in 1876 and 1880 and moved to Misujicho in 1881.

Although this book does not state the year of the publication, it must be after 1876 when he changed the kanji character of his name and before his death in 1887. During this period Japan’s first zoo, Ueno Zoological Gardens, was opened. The Ueno Zoo originates from the Vienna World’s Fair, the first expo that Japan officially participated in, held in 1873. In order to exhibit at the Fair, the Japanese Government collected products and animals from all over Japan and dispatched them to Vienna. After the World’s Fair, the Japanese Government arranged for the products and animals, which had been shown in Vienna, to be permanently exhibited in Tokyo. For this reason, a purpose-built museum (now called Tokyo National Museum) was constructed in Ueno to exhibit these artefacts. As a part of the museum, a zoo was also opened in 1882. The zoo was very successful, in fact there were over 220,000 visitors to the zoo in the first year even though most of the animals in the zoo were native to Japan because they were originally collected for the World’s Fair. There is a possibility that this book was published in 1882 when the zoo was opened, because of the tremendous popularity of the zoo.
However, people who saw this book first and then went to the zoo must have been disappointed because there are many exotic wild animals such as lions, elephants, giraffes and kangaroos in the book, which were not in fact to be found in the zoo. The first foreign animal to be exhibited in the Ueno Zoo was a tiger, which was obtained from Chiarini’s Royal Italian Circus and Performing Animals 10 in 1887.” (Source: Sainsbury Instiute – The Lisa Sainsbury Library)

• Keywords: Catalogue Two – Children’s Books · Children’s Books of the 19th century · Children’s Books Rare · Japanese Children’s Book of the 19th century · Japanese Children’s Book of the Meiji Era · Japanese History – Rare · Japanese Literature – Rare · Yoshimura, Saisei [Utagawa Yoshimura]
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 31687AB

EUR 1.480,--