Izu no odoriko [The Dancing Girl of Izu]

£6,800 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A beautifully produced limited edition of Yasunari Kawabata’s famous work, The Dancing Girl of Izu, with colour woodblock vignettes throughout, and hand-coloured cover design by Oana Ryuichi (1894-1966). A story of innocence and first love, told through a lonely twenty-year-old university student. In the last days of his summer holidays, the protagonist decides to travel to the Izu Peninsula. Along the way, he meets a band of travelling musicians, among whom is a young dancer called Kaoru. The story was praised for its deceptive simplicity, under which lie the complexities of youth and melancholia. Kawabata had a deep appreciation of Japan’s traditional arts and music, which is a theme explored in many of his notable works. The first edition of this title was published by Kinseido in 1927. Rare. Only one copy in OCLC.

• Year: 1932

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