Toshikata Mitsui Gonomi Miyako no Nishiki Table of contents

Meiji prints

Design:

Mizuno Toshikata (1866-1908)

Print title:

Title page/Table of contents

Album/series title:

Mitsui Gonomi Miyako no Nishiki (Brocades of the capital. The seasons and their fashions.)

Size:

22.6 x 32.3 cm (ōban)

Original woodblock print

Photography:

Jacques Commandeur

Special effects: silver metallic pigments on the stars under the book on top, and on the orange cloth around the flowerbasket handle.

This print displays the title and table of contents of the Mitsui Gonomi Miyako no Nishiki album, including the titles of the twelve prints.

Artist’s name in first column on the right:

Followed by series title in second column from the right:

In the third column from the right is the word ‘Index’:

Followed by the Japanese titles^*) of the twelve prints in this album (from right to left):

The last column from the right contains the firm name of the publisher:

Followed by a red seal with the name of the publisher:

And a red seal with the name of the carver:

The full name of the carver is Muneoka Shinkichi (1862-1929).

References

Narazaki, Muneshige, ed. (1990). Ukiyo-e Masterpieces in Western collections. The Robert O. Muller Collection. Tokyo: Kodansha International.

Ōta Memorial Museum of Art (1993). Meiji Taishō bijin hangaten. (A woodblock print exhibition of Meiji-Taishō beauties.) Tokyo: Ōta Memorial Museum of Art.

Stephens, Amy Reigle (1993). The New Wave: Twentieth-century Japanese Prints from the Robert O. Muller Collection. London: Bamboo Publishing.

^*) With many thanks to Naoko and Shinji Oba for helping me with the translation of the Japanese titles of the prints in this album.