The book titles are designed by KASHUŪ. A collection of Japanese woodblock prints from the acknowledged master of ukiyo-e, Kitagawa Utamaro (c.1754–1806)
The book has been shortlisted for British Book Design & Production Awards 2019!
For the first time, The Folio Society has printed the acknowledged master of ukiyo-e, Kitagawa Utamaro’s (c.1754–1806) ‘Studies from Nature’, five hand-crafted books of exquisite Japanese woodblock prints.
Each of the titles, as well as the set as a whole, features a printed paper label designed by KASHUŪ. Various styles of Japanese script are used in the original books but, after carefully examining all the different characters has been adopted to the same style to unify the elements.
During Japan’s Edo period art and literature flourished and Kitagawa Utamaro (c.1754–1806) was one of Japan’s most highly regarded artists and printmakers. Alongside his contemporaries Hiroshige and Hokusai, Utamaro was an acknowledged master of ukiyo-e, pictures of the Floating World.
The limited-edition collection includes kyōka poetry on the sentiments of love, composed by some of the form’s most prominent poets and translated by John T. Carpenter with further essays by J.T Carpenter, Alfred Haft and Alex Kerr.
This beautifully presented and meticulously produced book is the result of a long and complex collaboration and its many exquisite elements will both delight and fascinate.
