博物志 : 隨筆・写真 / Hakubutsushi: zuihitsu shashin (Records of Nature: Essays and Photographs)
東京 (Tokyo): 玄光社 (Genkosha), 1942. Limited First edtion. Hardcover. 1/1500. Quarto (10 1/4 x 7 1/2"). [2], 141, [3]pp. Original red-lettered illustrated dust-jacket over silver-lettered tan cloth. Title page in orange and black lettering. Book housed in its original printed cardboard slipcase, itself housed in a later olive cloth slipcase.
Scarce and unusual work by Onchi Koshiro (1891-1955), a noted Japanese print-maker, photographer, and one of the fathers of the Sosaku-hanga movement* in the early decades of 20th-century Japan.
Lavishly illustrated throughout with 107 b/w in-text photographic reproductions, "Hakubutsushi" (Records of Nature: Essays and Photographs) is a stunning tour de force, as it shows the author's incredible ability to see abstract and surreal beauty in the natural environment. The first 83 pages show photographs of various plants, followed by photographs of insects, reptiles, fishes, birds, cats and cows (pp. 84-130), and ends with pictures of animals in a zoo (pp.131-139). Some of the stark close-up portraits of plants are reminiscent of Karl Blossfeldt's work. Onchi's acoompanying text is comprised of comtemplative essays and childhood remenices on his various subjects, also describing their meanings for him. The work was printed in a limited number of 1500 copies, and has been considered quite unsual for a book of this type to have been published in Japan during the WWII period.
The front free endpaper contains a an inscription written in black marker, in Japanese, to the previous owner of the book.
Original cardboard slipcase sunned. Light water-staining along joints and spine of dust-jacket. Upper corners bumped, thus slightly affecting pages throughout. Text in Japanese. Modern slipcase in very good, original slipcase in good-, dust-jacket in good- to good, binding and interior in very good condition. Quite scarce. g- to vg. Item #42263
* Sosaku-hanga (創作版画 "creative print") was an art movement in early 20th-century Japan. It stressed the artist as the sole creator motivated by a desire for self-expression, and advocated principles of art that is "self-drawn" (自画 jiga), "self-carved" (自刻 jikoku) and "self-printed" (自刷 jizuri). As opposed to the shin-hanga ("new prints") movement that maintained the traditional ukiyo-e collaborative system where the artist, carver, printer, and publisher engaged in division of labor, creative print artists distinguished themselves as artists creating art for art’s sake. (From Wikipedia).
Price: $1,250.00