This tome is not to be missed! Packed with all sorts of cultural and iconographic background information in three main sections. The first is scholar Jan van Doesburg's comprehensive and well-documented essay on his study of prints of this genre. The essay deals not only with the artistic and historical aspects of Japanese tattooing, but also pays attention to social, cultural and iconographic aspects, and discusses the technique of Japanese woodblock-printing as well. Thirty-five illustrations of Japanese prints, selected from collections of museums, dealers and individual collectors worldwide, accompany the text as evidence of certain discussed matters. The second section of the book contains 80 Japanese woodblock prints depicting tattooed characters. Not only does this selection reflect many highly fashionable aspects of urban life in nineteenth-century Japan, it also shows distinctly the gradually developed reciprocity between the phenomena of tattooing and printmaking in Japan. The third section of this publication includes illustrations of the date and censorship seals that are found on Japanese woodblock prints published between 1791 and 1876. 

*319 pages

*9.25"x12.5"

Published by Huys den Esch, 2013. First Edition.