Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints: Reflections of Meiji Culture

First Edition, 2000. 284 pages. 

Book measures 7.25 x 10.25 inches. Includes 78 color plates of prints. Woodblock Kuchi-e Prints: Reflections of Meiji Culture is a pioneer exploration of a previously neglected genre of late-Meiji art: the type of handmade multicolor book frontispieces known as kuchi-e. Early European collectors assumed that the Japanese woodblock tradition came to an end in Western-tainted prints. In their examination of this late flowering of the woodblock print, the authors provide not only an introduction to a popular artistic tradition but also a new lens through which to view Japanese life at the end of the nineteenth century.