Antique Tenpo Japanese woodblock book set, 1833, complete 9 volumes - Hyakunin Isshu commentary

Hyakunin isshu hitoyogatari
Complete set of 9 volumes
Author: Ozaki Masayoshi
Illustrations: Oishi Matora
Publisher: Tsurugaya Kyubei, Osaka
Date: 1833 (Tenpo 4)
Type: illustrated Japanese woodblock-printed books devoted to the Hyakunin Isshu tradition

Antique Japanese complete set of 9 volumes, published in 1833 during the Tenpo period. This is an illustrated woodblock-printed edition devoted to the Hyakunin Isshu tradition, one of the central poetic bodies in Japanese literary culture.

This work is more than a simple commentary on classical poems. The edition brings together explanations of the verses, stories about the poets, cultural and biographical notes, and a substantial number of illustrations. Because of that, it reads not as a narrow scholarly manual, but as a vivid late Edo book where poetry, historical memory, and visual narrative are combined in a single project.

The text is associated with Ozaki Masayoshi, a known late Edo scholar, while the illustrations are by Oishi Matora. This makes the set interesting on several levels - as a literary object, as a document of Japanese publishing history, and as a substantial example of an illustrated woodblock book project from the Tenpo era.

Issued in Osaka, the set belongs to the commercial book culture of late Edo Japan, when classical texts were republished for an educated reading public. Books of this kind were valued not only for reading, but also for learning, collecting, and visual enjoyment in the domestic setting.

This edition is important not only as an antique Tenpo-period set, but also as a text that remained relevant within the wider Japanese literary tradition. Interest in it continued into modern scholarship and reading practice: a modern kuzushiji-reading edition was published in 2018, which further underlines the cultural and research value of the work.

A complete 9-volume set is especially important, since multi-volume Japanese books of the 19th century often survive incomplete. The value here lies not only in the age of the work, but also in the integrity of the series and in the survival of the publication as a whole rather than as isolated volumes.

This set fits well in a collection of Japanese woodblock books, Edo period poetry books, illustrated literary editions, and material related to the long cultural afterlife of Hyakunin Isshu.

Condition:
Antique condition. Antique works may show natural signs of age, including toning, small creases, corner wear, rubbing to covers, old marks, and other traces of historical use. Please review the photos carefully.

Size:
Size (approx.): 25 x 18 cm each volume.

Shipping:
Safe and tracked shipping from Latvia (Riga Gallery of Japanese Art CloudyYokomido).

For US buyers:
This item enters the United States duty-free.