A deluxe album of 36 colour prints each showing a poet on the left and one of her poems on the right with a frontispiece by Hokusai designed by Hosoda (Eishi) 1756-1829. The volume explores the lives and works of a group of 36 poets and novelists who flourished in the Imperial Court of Japan from the 9th through to the 13th centuries. Aristocratic women of the medieval Japanese court took up waka poetry as their literary vehicle. The poems were circulated at court and assembled in carefully structured anthologies which were copied and studied, even memorised, as models of the finest literature. A poetry competition had developed from games played among court women, and emerged as a significant literary and social structure. The poems were reproduced in calligraphy in 1797 by 36 girls between the ages of six and 15 and we are struck by these gorgeous colourful illustrations with a marginalia noting the name, address and age of the child responsible. For example the poem by Ukon was copied by Toyota Mine, age 6, and the poem by Michitsuna no haha was brushed by the girl's 10 year old sister, Toyota Ito. The children were all pupils of a calligraphy school who sponsored the publication, demonstrating the skill of the woodblock carvers who would have cleaned up any rough spots and showing the skills in drawing kana, the elements of Japanese syllabic script. Over the centuries selected representative examples were illustrated with imaginary portraits of the poets and such handscrolls and books were not only made as artistic works, but as instructional guides for new generations of poets. A student of Utamaro, here we have a reproduction of one such album by Eishi where portraits of poets presented in elegant court dress are paired with one of their most famous poems. Large print text and huge size softback, colour artworks throughout. 192pp, 20.3 x 26cm and a quality George Braziller rare 1991 imported publication from New York.
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