Sekino Junichiro’s take on the great classic, the Ugetsu Monogatari or Tales of Moonlight and Rain, beautifully illustrated with copperplate etchings. This is an extraordinarily sumptuous book to have printed in 1944, at the height of War. The present copy is in especially fine condition. Curiously, a previous owner has placed letterpress printed sheets of paper as tissue guards.
Written by author and poet Ueda Akinari (pen name Senshi Kijin, 1734-1809), the Ugetsu Monogatari was first published in five volumes in 1776. Widely regarded as a landmark book in Japanese literature, the book comprises nine chilling stories of the supernatural that were adapted from classical Chinese tales.
Sekino Junichiro (1914-1988) was one of the leading figures of sosaku-hanga. He was born in the very north of Japan, in Aomori, then moved south and became involved in sosaku-hanga groups, including the Ichimoku-kai ‘First Thursday Society’. Unusually for artists of the time, Sekino was very multi disciplinary, being accomplished in a wide range of printing methods. He was a student of the great Onchi Koshiro (1891-1955) and later taught in art universities across America. He printed a number of limited edition books in woodblock, stencil, etching and collaborated with fellow artists too, such as the illustrator Takei Takeo. The present title is a fine example of his skill has a printer.
Sekino had a fascination with the supernatural, and many of of books explore this theme. He was also fond of classical literature, and collaborated with the art book publisher Seien-so to print modern, illustrated editions – another example being an interpretation of the Kojiki, printed in stencil (kappa-ban) in 1949. Both editions were bound by Naito Masakatsu (dates unknown), who was known for creative book bindings.
Rare. Only 1 copy in OCLC (in Japan).
