UCHIKAESU NARUTO NO KISHINAMI [Samurai-Themed Popular Historical Fiction] by Utagawa Kunimatsu; Inano Toshitsune [Ineno Toshitsune]; Kawahara Fūrai; Wakita Suekichi - 1884

打回鳴戸岸波濤; Naruto of Kishinami Strikes Back: A samurai-themed historical novel in the cheaply printed, heavily illustrated popular genre of Kusazōshi, the Japanese companion to the Victorian dime novel, with the striking original color woodblock covers.

A saga of vengeance set in the early Edo period among the Hachisuka clan, a retelling of dramatic historical events involving samurai. The bright woodblock color-printed covers and the frequent double-page woodblock spreads are among the flashy traits that place this book in the genre of Kusazōshi [草双紙], popular illustrated works produced during the Edo (1600-1868) and early Meiji (1868-1912) periods. Artists Inano and Utagawa both worked primarily as illustrators for newspapers: this crossover from newspaper to cheap fiction was very common in the early Meiji period, when woodblock illustration and moveable type printing mixed with the hunger for news and popular entertainment. The particularly lovely cover design plays on the "wave" in the name from the title. OCLC lists no institutional holdings in the US.

Tokyo: 法木徳兵衛 [Noriki Tokubē], 1884. Very good plus. 2 vols, 7'' x 4.5'' each. Original color printed woodblock covers, bound fukuro toji style. Title labels with nunomezuri printing. Illustrated with color woodblock frontispieces in each volume; vol. I with three additional full-page color images and nunomezuri printed preface; 13 double-page black-and-white spreads (6 in vol. 1; 7 in vol. 2). [2], 46; 42 leaves. Small ink owner stamp on front cover of vol. I; different small ink owner stamp on first and last leaves of each volume; ink owner inscription to lower covers. Some toning and spotting to text. Wrappers bright with only trace marks of handling.