Meiji prints
| Design: | Ikeda Shoen (1886-1917) | |||||
| Album/series title: | Yaekasumi (Multilayered mist) in the Kees Berbee collection | |||||
| Size: | 24.6 x 18.2 cm | |||||
| Photography: | Jacques Commandeur |
|
|
This is the front cover of Ikeda Shoen’s Yaekasumi album in the collection of Kees Berbee*).
There are a number of interesting differences between the album in the Kees Berbee (KB) collection and the one in mine (JC):
- The cover of the KB album does not have a decorative pattern.
- Unlike the JC album, the KB album has no separate table of contents print containing the Japanese titles of the twelve prints. This seems to suggest that the KB album was specifically intended for Western markets.
- The order of the prints in the KB album is different from the order in the JC album. Using the English print titles, the order in the KB album is: A quiet talk over the brazier, A snowy morning, Schoolgirls homeward bound, A duet on the veranda, Gathering flowers in a spring field, Careless meditation, A rainy morning in spring, Iris flowers, Lotus flowers and fair maidens, A sweet melody on a moonlit night, Sketching the landscape, and Feeding pigeons.
References
- Merritt, Helen, and Yamada, Nanako (1992). Guide to Modern Japanese Woodblock Prints: 1900 - 1975. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
- Narazaki, Muneshige, ed. (1990). Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in Western collections. The Robert O. Muller Collection. Tokyo: Kodansha International.
- Newland, Amy Reigle, and Shinji, Hamanaka (2000). The female image. Leiden: Hotei Publishing.
*) With many thanks to Kees Berbee for allowing me to take a picture of the front cover of his Yaekasumi album, and to add it to my website.