JAPANESE GRAPHIC DESIGN.

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An album of early-modern book wrapper designs. A visually striking album of woodblock prints, based on designs for the book wrappers (fukuro) that protected multi-volume books in early-modern Japan. Although meant to be discarded, fukuro were nevertheless elaborately illustrated by some of the most prominent artists of the day.Fukuro were disposable printed wrappers "intended by publishers to protect books from soiling and damage in transit and in bookshops... Once a book was purchased and removed from its fukuro, it was not intended that it would be reinserted into it. As a result, very few survive" (Tinios, p. 164).The high quality of the prints indicate that this album was likely commissioned by a rich patron based on a personal collection of popular literature. It records the fukuro designs for a wide range of books, including many chapters of Shiranui monogatari, the longest serialized novel of the Edo period stretching over 90 volumes published from 1849 to 1885. Other famous literary works include Takizawa Bakin's and Katsushika Hokusai's Chinsetsu yumiharizuki, Keisai Eisen's Sono yukari hina no omokage, and Ryutei Tanehiko's Inu no soshi. There are minor differences between these prints and the published designs, most obviously that volume numbers have often been removed.

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