[EHON] Ihara SAIKAKU 伊原西鶴, author - Honchåoe åoein Hiji æOe¬æOe�櫻陰比事. 5 Volumes

1689. [EHON] Ihara SAIKAKU 伊原西鶴, author. HONCHÅOe ÅOeIN HIJI æoe¬æoe�櫻陰比事. 5 volumes, with (original?) blue covers. 25.5 x 18.2 cm. One of the five volumes has the original printed title slip, the rest are brushed. This ukiyo-zÅ� shi by Saikaku is based on legal cases from China, vernacular literature, etc. but all set in Kyoto. The illustrations are unsigned but in Yoshida Hambei's style. A bit atozuri, but the illustrations are still quite clear. In any case, the covers are a bit worn, but internally quite clean and fresh. Without the original colophon, but one has been brushed in, following the style of the Kashiwara colophon, indicating this is a copy of the second edition of the KyÅ� hÅ� period (1720-5, some reference c.1718), though it retains the Genroku 2 [1689] date of the first edition. Saikaku's ukiyÅ� -zÅ� shi are important monuments of early Edo literature. The illustrations have all the freshness of early ukiyo-e in the style of Yoshida Hambei å�‰ç”°å�Šå-µè¡›. In addition, this a particularly unusual work by Saikaku, virtually unknown in the marketplace in any edition. Complete. See Gardner's JAPANESE BOOKS IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM, items 404-5. An important monument of the beginnings of ukiyoe and popular literature.. Here, the mystery story, based on criminal investigations, makes its debut in Japan, long before it appeared as a genre in the West. .

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