[Album of Twenty Copperplate Engravings, Including Five Maps] by Shuntosai Okada - 1849-60

Album of 20 copperplate engravings mounted on silver-decorated blue paper; album measures 178 x 118 mm; images measure approximately 145 x 85 mm. Near fine condition.

Japanese artists began experimenting with copperplate engraving in the late eighteenth century but the method achieved popularity for only a brief period in the mid-1800s, primarily in the work of a Kyoto-based group known as Gengendō. The bulk of their work consisted of detailed small engravings of well-known views and pilgrimage sites, often based on existing popular forms such as classic views, schematic maps, layouts of temple precincts, walking guides, etc. The novelty of the foreign medium and its capability of presenting intense detail in a small format presumably contributed to its popularity, a popularity that was soon supplanted by two other media of Western origin, lithography and photography. (For an excellent examination in historical context, see Fowler, Sherry. "Views of Japanese Temples and Shrines from Near and Far: Precinct Prints of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries." Artibus Asiae 68, no. 2 (2008): 247-85.)

Offered here is an album of twenty copperplates by Okada Shuntosai (fl 1830-1861), a student of Gengendō's founder, Matsumoto Yasuoki (1776-1867). Such albums comprise the bulk of Shuntosai's work in both institutional holdings and on the market, but the sheer number of images in his output and the somewhat random selection and organization of the albums suggest that the prints were usually sold as singles to the Japanese populace and the albums were assembled for collectors or foreigners.

Several Western institutions have similar albums, including four at the MFA in Boston and one each at five others. The most extensive holdings I have located are in the municipal history museum in the city of Uji, near Kyoto: ten albums with a total of 440 prints, including numerous duplicates. Several have more than the usual twenty prints.

Following is a list of prints in the album, with identifications and dates based on the websites of the Dutch National Museum of World Cultures, the MFA and the Uji museum as well as John Clark, Japanese Nineteenth Century Copperplate Prints (British Museum Occasional Papers 84, 1994):

•Four Seasons in Tokyo
•Thousand Character Classic, 1858
•Special Points of Pride of the Three Cities: Edo, Kyoto, Osaka
•Enoshima 1860
•Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō (Nakasendo)
•Nihon Sankei—The Three Views of Japan: Miyajima, Matsushima, •Amanohashidate
•Edo, Ryōgoku Bridge, 1859
•Kyoto, New Shimabara, Temporary Location of Pleasure Quarter, 1856
•Edo, Shinobazu Pond, 1861
•Kyoto, Gion, Western Pavilion Gate
•Mountain Road between the Twin Noise and Yagi Temples of Myōken, 1849. •Shuntosai's earliest dated print.
•Kyoto, Self-guided Tour
•Edo, Asakusa Temple in Snow, 1860
•Edo, Surakawa Street, Three Theaters, 1860
•Eight Views of Edo (R to L) : Nihombashi, Kasumigaseki, Ueno, Matsuchiyama, •Shibaura, Asakusa, Eiradō, Sumida River
•Kyoto, Views of Famous Places in the Western Hills
•Edo, Sumida River, 1860
•Kyoto, Kagura Hill and Yoshida Shrine
•Kamakura, Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine
•Kyoto, Higashi Honganji (not in any referenced collections)