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Chats on Novelties of Foreign Lands (Kōmōzatsuwa 紅毛雑話) : [volume 1]

Morishima, Chūryō,‏ ‎1754-1810?‏ · 1787 · Edo : Suharaya Ichibei · 3 pictures

Kōmōzatsuwa is a late eighteenth-century Japanese illustrated book by Morishima Chūryō, published in Edo in 1787 by Suharaya Ichibei, written for general readers curious about Western goods and natural curiosities. Its pages pair dense columns of Japanese text with simple woodblock diagrams of objects such as a balloon, a shuttlecock with its racket, and a preserved lizard in a jar. A designer might take from them the clean, economical line work of Edo woodblock printing and the way labelled diagrams sit beside running text.

Lizards · Badminton (Game)

Thomas J. Watson Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art · No known copyright restrictions · More from this library