Author: Miyatake Gaikotsu.
Title: [Kiso Tenrai].
Description: Osaka, Gazokubunko 1910 (Meiji 43). 26x19cm publisher's wrapper with printed label; [2],30pp on double folded leaves, 16 pages in colour woodcuts, 14 in b/w. Minor signs of use, rather good. ¶ Charming, delightful, if you like being taken aback every now and then, baffled often, and can overlook the occasional tortured pun. This is very much in the spirit of Miyatake's series of sometimes bewildering and surreal series of postcards issued as extras to his humourous newspaper, Kokkei Shimbun, in 1907. Miyatake wasn't the artist as far as I know, he was writer and publisher and directed his stable of artists to produce the sort of images he enjoyed. The kind of humour he enjoyed apparently earned him four prison sentences.The text may solve the mysteries of several images; it may explain the point of the book, if there is one. I leave that to you. Worldcat finds no copies outside Japan.

Keywords: graphic art humour satire illustration Japan c20th modernism woodcuts manga