Chikuden Gafu by Tanomura Chikuden and Izawa Yasuji - 1880

Offering: With his mastery of Bunjinga landscape composition and treatment of literati themes, Tanomura Chikuden developed an original painting style of great interest. During his lifetime, he sold no paintings and contributed few woodblock designs. The set was prepared decades after his death, with the finely executed transfer designs by Izawa Yasuji. Offered are two of the four volumes from the first issue, the thirty two woodblock prints in sharp fresh impressions, each print on two facing pages, thirty one in gray, black, and white, and one also, with pink. Produced in a small size, suitable for travel and prolonged study, the prints have that ineffable Chikuden quality that offers new insights with repeated viewing: many are superb representations of the wabi-sabi aesthetic. Most of the prints are stamped with multiple production seals. Rarity: Very Scarce. A worldwide catalog search finds 5 institutional holdings including the National Diet Library of Japan and the Ryerson Library, Art Institute of Chicago. Condition: Owner Markings: owner's seal, foot of lower wrapper in both volumes. Worming: Trace worming to foot of upper wrapper in Part I / Volume I. Narrow track at foot of inner wrapper of Part II / Volume I ends with Print 1. Four other prints have a minute pin track at a tip edge. / Pages: some with bottom edge soiling, some with tiny ink dot at bottom edge. Part II / Volume I: pages with light tip bends, Prints viii and x with some loss within a repeating pattern. / Wrappers: slight wear and soiling. Part I / Volume I: Top edge of upper side with slight chip, slight ink mark adjacent to spine. Part II / Volume I: Upper side with a few pale spots and light corner wear. / Title Slips: light soiling, a few tiny edge chips. / Bindings: Fine. Pagination: Complete for the two offered volumes. Volume I, Part I: 47 pages with 23 numbered leaves, preface with separate pagination; 10 double-page landscape prints in black, white, and gray, each print leaf followed by a leaf of text. Volume II, Part II: 51 pages with 25 numbered leaves, introduction on one page, publisher's note, afterword on 2 leaves with separate pagination, blank page; 22 double-page landscape prints in black, white, and gray with wash, print no. 15 also with dark pink, prints accompanied by text in the print frame. Format: Publisher's auburn brown paper covers with noble style sewn bindings (koki toji), upper sides with title slips with different titles for each volume, the mikaeshi in vol. I on white peach paper dusted with green and flecks of gold, protected by an interleaf. Size: 160 x 95 mm. Woodblock prints measure 119 x 181 mm in their facing pages format. Reference: Brown, p. 119. Ryerson, p. 423. Waseda University catalog. Tanomura Chikuden [1777-1835]: Esteemed painter, calligrapher, scholar and poet. Born at Oka Castle, Kyushu Island, son of Hisada Nakagawa, physician to the Lord of Oka, he trained as a doctor, but gave up medicine and became an instructor in history and Confucian ethics at the clan's school. Also, he was appointed official historian in Bungo Province. At the same time, he studied Chinese painting, particularly the works of Dong Qichang [1555-1636] and the Chinese classics. He later studied painting with Watanabe Hoto and poetry with Karahashi Kunzan. In 1801, he visited Tani Buncho and would continue to study with him via correspondence. After retiring from the Lord of Oka's service (1813), he devoted himself to art and scholarship, becoming one of the great 19th century Japanese Nanga (Bunjinga) school painters, renowned for his Kyushu Island landscapes, many executed on the spot with a light line and spare use of color during his travels. Known for his friendships, he was intimate with many leading literati including, Uragami Gyokudo, Uragami Shunkin, Rai San'yo, Kido Takayoshi, Okada Beisanjin, and Shochiku Shinozaki. Chikuden wrote the influential, "Sanchujin jozetsu" (Chatter of a Mountain Dweller) in 1813. The two volumes treatise that included the "Chikuden-so-shiyu garoku" (Chikuden's Hundred Rules of Painting) was published in 1835. Additional Images: by request.