In 1882 a German man opened a plant nursery business in Yokohama, exporting Japanese plants to customers overseas. At one point, he had the idea of producing a colour catalogue for customers, one that would give them a basic introduction to the most common flowers and plants in this country. To create this, he enlisted the help of Takejiro Hasegawa, the Meiji-era publisher of a number of books that featured woodblock illustrations combined with Western language texts.

In the year 1901 they produced a beautiful book - it seems hardly fair to call it a 'catalogue' - illustrating the Japanese 'year' in flowers: The Favorite Flowers of Japan, illustrated by kuchi-e artist Mishima Shoso, with text written by the wife of the nursery owner. Each page of the book went through two completely separate printing processes: the text was done first on a modern letterpress, and the printed sheets (high quality Japanese hosho paper) were then sent to traditional printers to add the illustrations.

It seems that the book was quite successful, as a number of editions were produced, and it can still be found sometimes in bookshops overseas, although copies in good condition are not cheap at all. I purchased my copy from a dealer in England, and was happy to bring it 'home' back to Japan!

As I sit and look through this book I can't help but ask why it is no longer possible to create new modern books of this type, but I guess I know the answer - it was only practical when craftsmen's wages were at developing country levels. These days, we have all become so rich ...

David
Monday, October 31, 2005

(Here's the print in context in the Treasure Chest series.)