This title presents a ravishing selection of shunga by the first full-colour woodblock-print masters: Harunobu and Koryūsai. The prints used for this book are of a remarkable quality, their radiant colours perfectly preserved by the albums in which they were kept. The first volume in a series on erotic prints by famous Japanese woodblock-print artists, this book contains a detailed general introduction to the genre of shunga. In addition to a description of the historical and cultural settings of the prints, it focuses in particular on the locations and interiors where the erotic...

Of brigands and bravery: Kuniyoshi's heroes of the Suikoden is the first monograph in English on the stunning series of 74 prints illustrating figures from the Suikoden by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861), one of the outstanding Japanese woodblock-print masters of the 19th century. The Suikoden (commonly known in English as The water margin) is the Japanese adaptation of the 14th-century Chinese vernacular novel, the Shui hu zhuan, which recounts the exploits of a group of rebels on Mount Liang (J. Ryosanpaku) under the lead of the brave and righteous Song...