Title: Nomura Bunkyo Shozō Gakō Shasei (Nomura Bunkyo's Collection of Sketches), Circa 1868-1875. Early Meiji Sketchbook by a Japanese Painter of the Shijo School, With Roughly 57 Pages of Landscape Sketches and Sumi-E Ink Wash Paintings, Many Full Page and Some in Color
Author: Nomura Bunkyo
Condition: Very Good
An Early Meiji Period, mid to late 19th century manuscript sketchbook entitled Nomura Bunkyo Shozō Gakō Shasei, or Nomura Bunkyo's Collection of Sketches, an original collection of pen and ink sketches and paintings by the Japanese painter of the Shijo School when he was still relatively younger.
There are roughly 57 pages of sketches, as well as some sumi-e ink wash paintings, many being full page or even double page spreads, and some in color. Included depictions are that of the North Bank of the Uji River, a Panoramic View of the Higashiyama District, Yasaka Shrine, Mount Daimonji, and more. Based on the subject matter chosen, this is likely a series of sketches he made while in his home city of Kyoto.
Nomura Bunkyo (1854-1911) was born in the Shimogyo Ward of Kyoto Prefecture. His father, one Nomura Ubei, ran a kimono shop in Shijo Omiya. At the age of 14 in April 1867, he began studying ukiyo -e under Umekawa Tokyo, but in September 1869, he began studying painting in earnest under Shiokawa Bunrin of the Maruyama-Shijo School. While traveling through 19 provinces in the Kinai (a name for the ancient provinces around the capital Nara and Heian-kyō) region, he made detailed sketches and added Western-style realism to the landscape painting techniques he learned from Bunrin. Later moving to Tokyo in 1889, he became a prize-winner at the first Bunten, or Ministry of Education Arts Exhibition, a prestigious and influential annual national arts competition. One of his more notable pupils includes Yamamoto Shunkyo, who painted for Emperor Showa, and later became a professor at the Kyoto College of Fine Arts and one of the founders of the modern Kyoto school.
One manuscript in quarto (24.1 x 16.5 cm), 33 leaves
This manuscript is in very good shape, with minor rubbing and old ink staining to the covers. There is a single worm track beginning at the inner margins, slowly becoming larger by the second half of the manuscript, and affecting some of the illustrations.