Japanese Book History: A View from USC Libraries

A Popular Novel

Shakka hassō Yamato bunko (1845) is a popular fiction novel in two volumes which cleverly combine to form a single illustration when placed side-by-side, showing both the sophistication of woodblock print artists, carvers, and printers, as well the marketing savvy of publishers who were constantly innovating in order to make their product stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Similar to Yakusha nigao hayageiko, this book is a collaboration between a successful writer and an artist: it was written by the popular author Mantei Ōga (1818-1890) and illustrated by Utagawa Kunisada (1786-1865).

Shakka hassō Yamato bunko  also shows how woodblock printing allowed for the sophisticated integration of images and text on a single page, which became a feature of Edo period publishing. Illustrations could cover both pages of a two page spread, a small portion of a page, or a large portion of the page with text squeezed in around it to fill the empty space, as in these examples.

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