SHIKI NO HANA (Flowers of the four seasons).
[UNSÔDÔ] SAKAI HÔITSU, SUZUKI SONOICHI, & NAKANO SONOAKI
Kyoto: Printed by Yamada Naosaburô, Meiji 41 [1908]. 10 volumes (18.8 x 27.9 cm). Each volume is bound orihon style in stiff paper coves with printed, paper title and volume number label. The collection is separated into 2 volumes on Spring, 4 on Summer, 3 on Autumn and 1 on Winter, with a grand total of 237 color woodblock prints of japans flowers. Of this total, there are 232 double page images that are about 24 x 32 cm, within the printed borders. Each season has a separate index for each plate, which is numbered along the far right margin with a small piece of printed paper or printed character. Complete collection of four seasons of flowers and flowering trees and shrubs. The text for each section is present in the first volume along with the index. The images are delicately printed after designs by eminent 19th century Rimpa artists and printed by UNSÔDÔ while at the height of their considerable powers. This is a complete set in a clasped chitsu with brushed paper set title label. There are a few text pages with repairs along folds and others that have minor creases and small breaks along the fold of several woodblock flower prints. Very Good Sewn Binding (Item ID: 000010)
$9,500.00
This is a wonderful set in excellent impressions and colors, which is almost never found complete. A very fine and scarce complete set. According to Bartlett (Exhibit 103), "This work was published just a century after it was begun. It is so extensive and deals with so many more plants that the conventional 'flowers of the four seasons' of most artists that it is botanical as well as artistic in conception. The artist, Sakai Hôitsu (1761-1828), was the son of the Daimyô of Himeji in Harima Province. According to Ikebe Toen, who wrote the preface to the posthumous Shiki no Hana, 'he became a high priest of the Nishi Hongan-ji Temple in Kyôto toward the end of the 18th century. Although an artist of great ability himself, Hôitsu's passionate admiration for the work of Kôyetsu and Kôrin caused him to leave the priesthood and in 1808 build himself a house, where he established a school in which the styles of these two artists were carefully conserved and taught.' He devoted himself to painting the flowers of the four seasons from living specimens. At the time of his death, he had completed several hundred. His disciple Suzuki Sonoichi supplemented the collection and made an album. Later, Nakano Sonoaki (1833-1892) was requested to round out the album to 1000. Until 1908 it remained unpublished, and then Yamada Unsô (pen-name) got permission to publish it." (Bartlett, 103; Brown, P. 61).