山水奇観 Sansui Kikan, volume 2 with independent title, Tōzan kishō by 淵上 旭江 Fuchigami Kyokkō - 1800

Offering: The first edition of Volume II of the seminal travel guide to natural wonders in the Inland Sea of Japan, with numbered sheets and sharp, bright impressions of the woodblock prints. The volume is devoted to exceptional mountain landscapes in the Sanyo region of Honshu and is complete with its independent title page and the suite of twenty six black and white woodblock prints, each on two facing pages. The unusually wide gutter format suits the many panoramic designs. Widely credited as a breakthrough in the depiction of Japanese landscape, views were printed from field studies and paintings done on-site by Kyokkō. The work had a great influence on later Edo period landscape painting and travel literature, including on the artists, Buncho, Hokusai, Hiroshige, and Sadahide. In Japan, until then, woodblock landscape prints were made from designs derived from imagination or memory. Fuchigami Kyokkō [1753-1816] traveled for twenty three years through the Inland Sea of Japan, fabled in Japanese culture for its many picturesque and spectacular views, sketching littoral scenes, including unique mountains, cliffs, and rocks treasured in Shinto practice. Rarity: The set is excessively rare and even single volumes rarely appear. A worldwide institution search finds eleven holdings in Japan, six complete, including the National Diet Library and Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art and three partial holdings in the West, at the Rijksmuseum, Fitzwilliam Museum and Stanford. Condition: Acceptable. Woodblock Prints: sharp, bright and almost entirely clean, four leaves with tiny creases to top tips, prints 2-7 with no worming, the integrity of the other prints unaffected by worm tracks, which are limited to wide margins. Worming: Title page with series of smaller margin tracks. Print 1 with slight worming in inner margin. Prints 8-21 with light worming in wide gutter margin. Prints 14-20 with light worming in wide top margin. Prints 21-26 with substantial worm tracks in wide top margin. / Wrappers: edge wear, all-around rubs, a few abrasions, minor scattered worming. / Title Slip: volume number rubbed, small worm trail below characters. / Binding: solid and reliable with top stab hole detached on both sides. Pagination: Complete; 53 pages with 26 numbered leaves, woodblock prints with descriptive text, title page with gago-in seal stamped in cinnabar, shubun style. Format:Publisher's light blue wrappers with a blind printed design of florals circumscribed by polygons and a mounted light tan title slip printed in scarlet; sewn with 4 stab holes in the fukuro-toji style. Size: Prints (within wide borders): 272 x 154 mm / Pages: 154 x 100 mm. Reference: Kokusho so Mokuroku 30466. Nishida, Journal of the Japanese Institute of Landscape Architecture, 2007. King, Beyond the Great Wave: The Japanese Landscape Print 1727-1960, p. 103. Jansen, Hiroshige's Journey in the 60-odd Provinces. Not in Ryerson, Brown or Hillier (Hillier describes the Sansui Kikan of Harunobu Gakutei). Additional Images: by request.