This is a fantastic antique Japanese Edo Period c.1780 educational encyclopedia for women with explicit pictures and text detailing all the things an Edo Period woman would need to know to be successful and a good housewife. Everything from the 'Hyakunin Isshu' or hundred poems that every well bred woman would be expected to know to sections on tea ceremony, the right incense, how to make kimonos, 'ohaguro' the art of blackening one's teeth and shaving eyebrows after marriage to lessons on high and low tides. Every page is calligraphy or pictures carved into woodblocks and then woodblock printed, a mind boggling venture. Someone carved every character and picture in backwards in order to print it on rice paper. Dated c.1780. (10" x 7" ) (25cm x 18cm). EMS Shipping. Ask for quote.

Asian Antiques