Volume II deals with:

• The Miyagawa School and
• The Kasukawa School

For more information on the complete five volume set, see below.

Text Pages

Listing of Plates

Illustrated Limitation page



Title Page



Text Pages

Part Four    Miyagawa School - Text Pages 37-44 - Plates 41-54.
               Chapter I.     Choshun Miyagawa
               Chapter II.    Shunsui Katsu-Miyagawa
               Chapter III.   Choki Miyagawa; Masayuki Miyagawa;
                              Issho Miyagawa, and Shinsui Katsukawa

Part Five    Katsukawa School - Text Pages 45-74 - Plates 55-73
               Chapter I.     Shunsho Katsukawa
               Chapter II.    Shuncho Katsukawa
               Chapter III.   Shunye Katsukawa
               Chapter IV.    Shunko Katsukawa
               Chapter V.     Shundo Katsukawa
               Chapter VI.    Shunkaku, Shunjo, Shunkyo, Shunko, Shunrin
                               Shunkyoku, Shunsen, Shungyo and Kyokko Katsukawa
               Chapter VII.   Shuntei Katsukawa
               Chapter VIII.  Shunsen Katsukawa
               Chapter IX.    Shunzan Katsukawa
               Chapter X.     Shuntoku and Shundo Katsukawa


Plates
(Color Except for the 8 Underlined Plates)
 
Volume  I.     List of Plates

41.     Summer Scene                               By Choshun Miyagawa
        

42.     Beauties in a Maple-Grove                  By Choshun Miyagawa
        

43.     Beauties Leading a Horse                   By Choshun Miyagawa
        

44.     A Beauty                                   By Choshun Miyagawa
        

45.     Girls, with a Horse, Looking at Mount Fuji By Choshun Miyagawa
        

46.     A Beauty on a Horse and Attendants         By Choshun Miyagawa
        

47.     Looking at Plum-Blossoms                   By Choshun Miyagawa
        

48-49.  Men and Women Playing Together             By Choshun Miyagawa
        
        

50.     A Beauty Playing the Samisen               By Shunsui Katsu-Miyagawa
        

51.     A Beauty Perfuming Her Clothes             By Choki Miyagawa
        

52.     A Beauty and a Girl                        By Choki Miyagawa
        

53.     Beauties Playing Cards                     By Isshd Miyagawa
        

54.     Men and Women Playing Together             By Masayuki Miyagawa
        

55.     Two Beauties Strolling                     By Shunsho Katsukawa
        

56.     A Beauty Under the Blossoms                By Shunsho Katsukawa
        

57.     A Beauty and a Cat                         By Shunsho Katsukawa
        

58-59.  Beauties                                   By Shunsho Katsukawa
        
        

60.     Seven Beauties in a Bamboo Grove           By Shunsho Katsukawa
        

61.     A Group of Beauties Looking at Kakemono    By Shunsho Katsukawa
        

62.     Dramatic and Theatrical Pictures           By Shunsho Katsukawa
        

63.     Worshipping at the Shrine in the 
          Four Seasons: Sports of the Five
          Festivals By Shunchd Katsukawa           By Shunsho Katsukawa
        

64.     A Beauty Casting a Fish-Line               By Shuncho Katsukawa
        

65.     A Group of Beauties Playing                By Shuncho Katsukawa
        

66.     Nagaye                                     By Shuncho Katsukawa
        

67.     The Wedding Procession                     By Shunyei Katsukawa
        

68.     Female Wood-Cutters                        By Shunyei Katsukawa
        

69.     Playing Music and Dancing                  By Shunko Katsukawa
        

70.     A Beauty and Two Girls                     By Shundo Katsukawa
        

71.     A Beauty                                   By Shungyo Katsukawa
        

72.     A Scene  of Yamazaki, and the Invasion
          at  Night, From the Onna Chushingura     By Shunzan Katsukawa
        

73.     A Beauty at Her Toilet                     By Shunzan Katsukawa
        

31 color woodblock plates, 2 black & white collotype plates
Black and white plate nos. are underlined above.



Listing of Plates (above repeated but with no illustrations)

Volume  II.     List of Plates

41.     Summer Scene                               By Choshun Miyagawa
42.     Beauties in a Maple-Grove                  By Choshun Miyagawa
43.     Beauties Leading a Horse                   By Choshun Miyagawa
44.     A Beauty                                   By Choshun Miyagawa
45.     Girls, with a Horse, Looking at Mount Fuji By Choshun Miyagawa
46.     A Beauty on a Horse and Attendants         By Choshun Miyagawa
47.     Looking at Plum-Blossoms                   By Choshun Miyagawa
48-49.  Men and Women Playing Together             By Choshun Miyagawa
50.     A Beauty Playing the Samisen               By Shunsui Katsu-Miyagawa
51.     A Beauty Perfuming Her Clothes             By Choki Miyagawa
52.     A Beauty and a Girl                        By Choki Miyagawa
53.     Beauties Playing Cards                     By Isshd Miyagawa
54.     Men and Women Playing Together             By Masayuki Miyagawa
55.     Two Beauties Strolling                     By Shunsho Katsukawa
56.     A Beauty Under the Blossoms                By Shunsho Katsukawa 
57.     A Beauty and a Cat                         By Shunsho Katsukawa
58-59.  Beauties                                   By Shunsho Katsukawa
60.     Seven Beauties in a Bamboo Grove           By Shunsho Katsukawa
61.     A Group of Beauties Looking at Kakemono    By Shunsho Katsukawa
62.     Dramatic and Theatrical Pictures           By Shunsho Katsukawa
63.     Worshipping at the Shrine in the 
          Four Seasons: Sports of the Five
          Festivals By Shunchd Katsukawa           By Shunsho Katsukawa
64.     A Beauty Casting a Fish-Line               By Shuncho Katsukawa
65.     A Group of Beauties Playing                By Shuncho Katsukawa 
66.     Nagaye                                     By Shuncho Katsukawa 
67.     The Wedding Procession                     By Shunyei Katsukawa 
68.     Female Wood-Cutters                        By Shunyei Katsukawa
69.     Playing Music and Dancing                  By Shunko Katsukawa
70.     A Beauty and Two Girls                     By Shundo Katsukawa
71.     A Beauty                                   By Shungyo Katsukawa
72.     A Scene  of Yamazaki, and the Invasion	
          at  Night, From the Onna Chushingura     By Shunzan Katsukawa
73.     A Beauty at Her Toilet                     By Shunzan Katsukawa

31 color woodblock plates, 2 black & white collotype plates
Black and white plate nos. are underlined above.

Colophon

Printed: Meiji 40 (1907).2.25
Published: Meiji 39 (1907).6.28

Folding case

Tajima, Shiichi (editor):
Masterpieces Selected from the Ukiyoye School (Eibun Ukiyoe-Ha Gashu), Shimbi Shoin, Tokyo, 1906-9 (Meiji 39-42), Volumes I-V, folio (13 1/2 x 19 1/2 in - 34.2 x 49.5 cm), silk covered boards with a woodblock illustration on the front board, edges beveled, spine covered in decorated silk cloth, purple silk ties, title in English in gilt on front board, top and bottom page edges in gilt, text in English, 170 plates (158 color woodblock and 12 black and white collotype), 215 pp (211 numbered text pages and a 4 page preface). Each plate is preceded by a tissue guard with information in English regarding the plate that follows. There are numerous less than plates size illustrations in the text pages. While most are woodcuts, a few are collotypes. The cover woodblock illustrations are different on each of the five volumes. Issued with a straw textured folding case with ivory type clasps. Each volume contains a numbered limitation statement. According to Shimbi Shoin catalogues "Regular" and "Special" editions were issued in a total quantity of 600 sets and an "Edition de luxe" was issued in a quantity of 100 sets.

A Japanese language version (Eibun Ukiyoe-Ha Gashu) or (Ukiyoye-ha Gwashu) was also published. While the total number of sets printed is clearly defined at 700, the allocation as to types is not clear. It is generally believed that 600 sets were sold with text in Japanese and 100 sets were sold with the text in English with the translation by Professor Joseph King Goodrich. The English language version has one plate that differs from the corresponding plate in the Japanese edition. This is plate 155 in volume 5 which is a triptych titled "Part of a Roll Representing Various Fashions in the Four Seasons" by Yeishi Hosoda.

The Shimbi Shoin outlines in detail the color woodblock (chromoxylograph) process it uses in Process of Wood-Cut Printing Explained. This description can be found here.

Volumes 1-3 and 5 are digitally archived here - the collection of the family of Henry Posner, Sr. at Carnegie Mellon University.

Wenckstern calls the book Masterpieces Selected from the Ukiyoye [popular] School and states:

...in five volumes of 30 plates each. Volume I contains an essay on the origin and development of the Ukiyoye school, biographical data sketches of the artist and some critical descriptions. 35 pp text and 39 plates. (Edition de luxe, 100 copies, 250 yen the set; ordinary edition, 600 copies, 200 yen the set.

Early Shimbi Shoin catalogues described the set with 150 pictures (plates). Later catalogues modified that to 170. Booksellers have reported the set with 175 plates but I have not been able to confirm that as accurate. It is possible that the 175 number was the number of woodblock prints. Some plates contain more than one woodblock print. Volume IV contains 5 color illustrations (probably woodblocks) incorporated as illustrations into the text section.

An early, but undated, Shimbi Shoin catalogue states that the edition was limited to 700 copies and of that total 100 were deluxe editions. This catalogue listed three editions:

Edition de luxe - 26 GB Pounds
Special Edition - 23 GB Pounds
Ordinary Edition - 21 GB Pounds

This catalogue stated:

5. The number of volumes in this edition is limited to Seven hundred copies, including 100 copies of the edition de luxe and 100 copies of the special edition (that is bound in a more attractive way that the ordinary edition and some of such pictures as were originally painted on silk will be reproduced in silk). Each volume in the entire series is numbered and registered, as a guarantee of its genuineness.

By 1920, Shimbi Shoin catalogues dropped reference to the "Edition de luxe." Perhaps this was because they were sold out.

The editor, Shiichi Tajima, was also the editor of Selected Relics of Japanese Art, a 20 volume set published between 1899 and 1908. These set was very similar in composition to this book. It featured prominent Japanese art reproduced in collotype and woodblock. During the period of 1902-7, the The Kwansai Photograph Company produced the collotype plates used in that set.

 
The actual dimensions of the plates range from a woodblock prints tipped to a page (page size is 12 x 19 1/4 in - 30.5 x 49 cm) and occupying 60-80% of the page to massive fold-out plates like plate 48 in Volume II. That plate has three folds out and the woodblock print that is tipped to page is almost 3 feet wide.

Plate 48 - 3 folds out
Page Size: 19 1/4 x 40 1/4 in - 49 x 101.5 cm
Woodblock Print Size: 11 x 35 1/2 in - 28 x 94 cm

 
Listing of Plates can be reviewed here:

Volume I
Volume II
Volume III (not available)
Volume IV
Volume V

 
Contents of the five volumes cover:

Volume I     1906 (Meiji 39) - [Plates 1-40]
Part One.    Genre of Before and About the Keicho and the Kwanye 
               Eras (1596-1643) - Plates 1-16.
Part Two.    Matabei Iwasa - Plates 17-27
Part Three.  The Hishikawa School - Plates 28-40
               Chapter I.    Moronobu Hishikawa
               Chapter II.   Morofusa Hishikawa
               Chapter III.  Moroshige Hishikawa
               Chapter IV.   Morohira Hishikawa
               Chapter V.    Wawo Hishikawa
               Chapter VI.   Tomofusa Hishikawa
               Chapter VII.  Morotsugi Furuyama
               Chapter VIII. Moromasa Furuyama
               
                  33 color woodblock plates
                   7 black and white collotypes 


Volume II    1907 (Meiji 40) - [Plates 41-73]
Part Four    Miyagawa School - Plates 41-54.
               Chapter I.     Choshun Miyagawa
               Chapter II.    Shunsui Katsu-Miyagawa
               Chapter III.   Choki Miyagawa; Masayuki Miyagawa;
                              Issho Miyagawa, and Shinsui Katsukawa
Part Five    Katsukawa School - Plates 55-73
               Chapter I.     Shunsho Katsukawa
               Chapter II.    Shuncho Katsukawa
               Chapter III.   Shunye Katsukawa
               Chapter IV.    Shunko Katsukawa
               Chapter V.     Shundo Katsukawa
               Chapter VI.    Shunkaku, Shunjo, Shunkyo, Shunko, Shunrin
                               Shunkyoku, Shunsen, Shungyo and Kyokko Katsukawa
               Chapter VII.   Shuntei Katsukawa
               Chapter VIII.  Shunsen Katsukawa
               Chapter IX.    Shunzan Katsukawa
               Chapter X.     Shuntoku and Shundo Katsukawa
              
                  31 color woodblock plates
                   2 black and white collotype plates


Volume III     1907 (Meiji 40) - [Plates 74 - 103]
                  30 color woodblock plates
                  Information not available


Volume IV      1907 (Meiji 40) - [Plates 104 - 143]
Part Ten       Okumura School - Plates 104-107
               Chapter I.     Masanobu Okumura
               Chapter II.    Toshinobu and Masafusa
Part Eleven    Kitao School - Plates 108-116
               Chapter I.     Shigemasa Kitao
               Chapter II.    Masanobu Kiato
               Chapter III.   Masayoshi Kiato
               Chapter IV.    Shunman Kubota
               Chapter V.     Ryuko Kitao and Yoshimura Kiato
Part Twelve    Utagawa School - Plates 117-127
               Chapter I.     Toyoharu Utagawa
               Chapter II.    Toyohiro Utagawa
               Chapter III.   Toyokuni Utagawa
               Chapter IV.    Kunisada Utagawa
               Chapter V.     Kuniyoshi Utagawa
               Chapter VI.    Hiroshige Utagawa
Part Thirteen  Katsushika School - Plates 128-143
               Chapter I.     Hokusai Katsushika
               Chapter II.    Hokutai Katsushika
               Chapter III.   Hokuba Arisaka
               Chapter IV.    Hokkei Totoya
               Chapter V.     Shigenobu Yanagawa
               Chapter VI.    Shinsai Ryuryukyo
               
                  38 color woodblock plates
                   2 black and white collotype plates
               
               
Volume V       1909  (Meiji 42) - [Plates 144-170]
Part Fourteen  Kitagawa School  Plates 144-150
               Chapter I.     Utamaro Kitagawa
               Chapter II.    Disciples of Utamaro
               
Part Fifteen   Hosoda School  Plates 151-158
               Chapter I.     Yeishi Hosoda
               Chapter II.    
               Chapter III.
               Chapter IV.    Disciples of Yeishi
               
Part Sixteen   Kikugawa School  Plates 159 
               Chapter I.     Yeizan Kikugawa
               Chapter II.    Keisai Yeisen
               Chapter III.   Yeisho Kikugawa
               Chapter IV.    Disciples of Yeisen
               
Part Seventeen Hanabusa School  Plates 160-164   
               Chapter I.     Itcho Hanabusa
               Chapter II.    Sushi Sawaki and Sukoku Ko
               
Part Eighteen  Miscellaneous Artists of Kyoto and Osaka  Plates  165-170
               Chapter I.     Rippo Hinaya
               Chapter II.    Sukenobu Nishikawa
               
                  26 color woodblock plates
                   1 black and white collotype 

 
Folding Case. Issued with a straw textured folding case with ivory type clasps.

 
Limitation Statements. After the half title page in each volume there is an illustrated limitation statement. The illustration is different in each volume. The statement indicates the number of the set out of the "Six Hundred Copies" that were printed.

 
Paper Types. High quality paper was used in the production of this set. The following paper types are noted.

• Medium paper stock (folded and unfolded). Front and back blank pages (unfolded), half title page (folded), limitation statement page (folded), full title page (folded).
• Thin paper stock (folded and unfolded). Text pages(folded) and descriptive tissue guards (unfolded), list of plates (folded) & colophon (folded). Fold-out collotype plates are printed on thin paper which is then tipped to the heavy card stock plate page in the book.
• Heavy card stock (always unfolded). All plates (woodblock and collotype) are mounted to thick/heavy card stock plate pages in the book. The woodblock prints are tipped to thick/heavy card stock plate pages. In the case of fold-out woodblock plates, they are tipped to heavy card stock paper that is then glued along one edge to the plate page in the book. Non-folding collotype plates are printed directly on thick/heavy card stock.

 
Descriptive Tissue Guards. The plates are preceded by descriptive tissue guards. An example of the text is here. Often, a descriptive tissue guard will apply to more than one plate. These descriptions provide:

• Title of the Art
• Artist or School
• Type of Work (ie screen, painting)
• Dimensions of the Original Work
• Owner.

 
Typical Collation. Blank page (front), half title page/limitation statement page, full title page/back blank, list of plates/back blank, text pages, plates, text pages, plates, colophon/back blank & blank page (back).