EHON NOYAMA GUSA: PICTURE BOOK OF MOUNTAIN & FIELD PLANTS. Alternate Japanese Ti

Osaka 1806, Yanagiwara. Stitched color stiff wrs., vols. 3 & 5 of 5 vol.set,profuselly color woodblock illustrated,covers rubbed, title labels chipped, 15.2 x 22 cm.,29+23+17 double folded leaves,lacks vols. 3 & 5 only FIRST EDITION * This is a famous work, by the celebrated botanical artist Tachibana Morikuni [ca. 1670?-1748]. This superb work has often been confused with the author's son, Tachibana Yasukuni and his book due to its similar format and content, with the same title. The fact that Morikuni's book was also republished posthumously as late as 1760 adds to the bibliographic confusion. *** This work is one of Japanese botany's most interesting and charming works of old times. Each of the multitude of very good illustrations show 190 different varieties of wild flowers & native plants, each named and labeled in shown in natural "Insitu." * A virtual dictionary of Japanese mountain plants. One of the more valuable reference points of this book is that it also is a major pharmacopoeia and cross reference for other Japanese medical books. These refer to many of these plants, for the making of prescriptions, this being an illustrated dictionary of those [& all other plants] that graphically illustrate them as found in natural settings. * Books of this subject nature, which show and name exceptionally large amounts of plants must be considered as historic botanical treasure. They record faithfully what the plant looked like from hundreds of years ago in their various seasons. * SIZE: The book is 15.2 x 22 cm. Original covers, being a "mixed" set. Volume one is the original 1806 edition, bound in orange; vols. 3, 4, 5 are buff covers the Meiji edition. All have title slips, all clean, solid, color illustrated. See bibliography below for more details. None of the bibliographies lists the Meiji edition, but what we can gather from the colophon in the back of volume 5, the reprint edition appears to be Meiji 15, 16 [1881-1882], carved by Hasegawa, published in Osaka. * The work was hand-printed, on hand-made Washi Masa paper. ***** REFERENCES: Kenji Toda in his DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE JAPANESE & CHINESE ILLUSTRATED BOOKS IN THE RYERSON LIBRARY OF THE A.I.C. cites this book on p.319 but gives the more common reading of the title as: EHON NOYAMA GUSA, with a secondary attribution to the artist [author] as Hokkyoo Yasukuni [same author but using his "studio" name. But mistakenly cites the author/artist as Tachibana Yasukuni, the son. His collation matches exactly with our copy, which was first published in 1755, thus, this is the 1806 reprint of that edition and is so noted in the colophon at the back of volume 5. * BIBLIOGRAPHY: * E. Merrill & E. Walker: A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF EASTERN ASIATIC BOTANY, p.561 for their entry which attributes this work to Yasukuni. * Kenji Toda: DESCRIPTIVE CATALOGUE OF THE JAPANESE & CHINESE ILLUSTRATED BOOKS IN THE RYERSON LIBRARY OF THE ART INSTITUTE CHICAGO, p.319, with a secondary attribution to the artist [author] as Hokkyoo Yasukuni [same author but using his "studio" name. * Yu-ying Brown: JAPANESE BOOK ILLUSTRATION, p.48, color plate #44, copy found in the British Museum * H. Bartlett & H. Shohara: JAPANESE BOTANY DURING THE PERIOD OF WOOD BLOCK PRINTING pp.126-7, and a full page illustration, fig. 14 for an example. * Dawes. V & A catalogue, p.122 ** .