Author: [PAINTING ALBUM]
Title: Nikuhitsu Manga Kaikoku Rokujunenshi Zu-E
Description: 1927. [PAINTING ALBUM]. Nikuhitsu Manga KAIKOKU ROKUJUNENSHI ZU-E. Done by the Chuo Bijutsu Kyokai in Tokyo in 1927 as a 43 x 31 cm portfolio of 52 original watercolor drawings (counting the table of contents and cover title label) on satiric and comical themes, done to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the opening of Japan in the mid-19th century. The title represents quite a liberal interpretation of chronology, since the opening of Japan was in 1854, but it is probably refers to the Meiji Restoration as the beginning of "opening" and also refers to Baron Okuma's somber and influential 50 year history of modern Japan with its almost identical title, done in 1909. There was more than one set of these drawings assembled. It seems to have been issued as a limited hand-drawn edition. One of several such major painted works in a manga style There is a hand-written table of contents/colophon with the captions of the drawings and their artists listed by Nakamura Fusetsu (1866-1943), the important Haiga artist. Two dozen or so of the most prominent cartoonists, satirists and artists are represented. One of the two watercolors by the great cartoonist Okamoto Ippei (1886-1948) is a caricature of his friend Natsume Soseki, the famous author of "I Am A Cat" captured with his pet tabby beside him, inextricably linked in Ippei's imagination, and ours. The "father of modern manga", Kitazawa Rakuten (1876-1955), has two, as do the important printmakers, Maekawa Sempan (1888-1960) and Mizushima Nihofu (1884-1958). The list of talented and significant contributors goes on as does the subject matter: political satire, China vs. Japan, East vs. West, tradition vs. modernity, technology vs. craft, from abstract Sumo wrestlers to a surreal embodied eye, a congeries of images overwhelms our eyes in turn. A wonderful visual epitome of the free spirit of democracy if not anarchy in the 1920s before the dark days to come. In very good condition, the watercolors are skillful and powerful. There is quite a bit of contemporary supplementary material included from the time. .

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