All Collections > Explore Arts & Literature > Collection Guide

Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan

More than 1,000 images encompassing 1,200 years of Japanese book art, including Buddhist sutras, painted manuscripts, portraits, landscapes, calligraphic verse, and photographic books, with related drawings and woodblock prints.

Collection Contents | Related Subjects

Kitagawa Utamaro, 1753?-1806. Shiohi no tsuto = Gifts of the ebb tide = The shell book. (1789) Digital ID: 1504492.

Kitagawa Utamaro, 1753?-1806. Shiohi no tsuto [Gifts of the ebb tide; commonly known in English as The shell book] (Second edition, 1789). Digital ID: 1504492.

Collection Contents

Baika jô = The plum blossom album. (1808)

Bakemono Yotsugi no hachinoki = The goblin inheritance and the bonsai trees. (1781)

Benkei ichidaiki = The life of Benkei (1767)

Bijin ezukushi = Pictures of beautiful women. (1683)

Bon no tsuki = Moon of the Summer Festival (1830)

Bussetsu jûôkyô = The Sutra of the Ten Kings of Hell. (1594)

Chichi no on = A Father’s Love. (1730)

Chikudô gafu = The Chikudô Album. (1800)

Chôju ryakugashiki = How to draw simple animals. (1797)

Daihannyakyô = Prajnaparamita Sutra = The Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom. (1279)

Ehon sakaegusa = Leaves of prosperity. (1790)

Ehon tokiwagusa = Eternal Flowers, A Picture Book. (1730)

Enshoku shina sadame = Works of love. (ca. 1850s)

From Fifty-three Stations of the Tôkaidô Road. (1811)

Fugaku hyakkei = 100 views of Mt. Fuji. (1834-1835)

Fugaku hyakkei = 100 Views of Mt. Fuji. (1834-1835)

Gaen yûkaku shû. (1818)

Genji monogatari : Sakaki no maki. = The Tale of Genji. (Second half 17th century)

Genji monogatari: Kashiwagi no maki. = The Tale of Genji. (Second half 17th century)

Giga bassui Itichô gafu = The Itchô picture album : a selection of playful sketches. (1770)

Haikai sanjûrokkasen = 36 Great haikai poets. (1799)

Hakubyô Genji monogatari emaki = Black-and-white handscrolls of the Tale of Genji

Hana gyôshi. (1815)

Hokusai manga. = The Hokusai sketchbooks. (1814-1875)

Ifû shashin kagami = A Life-like Mirror of Foreign Custom. (1853)

Ise monogatari = The Tales of Ise. (1608)

Japanese pictures of Japanese life. (ca. 1900)

Jôkyôshû = Aboard the ship of inspiration. (1767)

Kafuku ninpitsu = Leave joy and sorrow to the brush. (1808)

Kagetsu jô. (1836)

Kaishien gaden = The mustard seed garden painting manual. (1753)

Kaitai shinsho = The new book of anatomy. (1774)

Katsura kasane = Tree upon tree. (1803)

Keijô gaen = Pictures from the Capital. (1814)

Kihô gafu = The Kihô Album (1827)

Kimpira musha shugyo = Kimpira the Warrior. (ca. 172-)

Kishi empu = Mr. Ginger's book of love. (1803)

Kyôchûzan = Mountains of the heart. (1816)

Kyôka ekyôdai = Pictures Paired with Verse (1834)

Kôrin gafu = The Kôrin Album. (1802)

Meigetsu jô = The full moon album. (1808)

Meika gafu = Pictures by famous artists. (1814)

Michimori. (ca. 1605-1615)

Mitsukumi no sakazuki = Three Wine Cups (ca. 1825)

Momoyogusa = Flowers of a Hundred Generations. (1909)

Mukashigatari shichiya no kura = The old tale of the pawnbroker’s warehouse. (1810)

Mukashigatari shichiya no kura = The old tale of the pawnbroker’s warehouse.

Mukujôkô daidarani kyô = The Sutra of the Great Incantations of Undefiled Pure Light = Vimalasuddhaprabhasa Mahadharani Suttra. (764-770)

Myôhô rengekyô = Saddharma-pundarika Sutra = The Lotus Sutra. (Mid-13th century)

Nishikizuri onna sanjûrokkasen = Color Prints of the Thirty-six Immortal Woman Poets. (1801)

Ransai gafu = The Ransai painting album. (1782)

Rikka zu = Flower arrangements. (1673)

Saishiki mitsu no asa = Colors of the Three Mornings. (1787)

Sansai hyakushû = 100 verses on heaven, earth and humanity. (1820-1831)

Sansui ryakugashiki = How to draw simple landscapes (1800)

Seikô jô = The Seikô album (1824)

Seiro Bijin awase sugata kagami = A mirror of beauties of the Green House. (1776)

Sekka zusetsu = An illustrated treatise on snow crystals. (1832)

Shidare yanagi = The Trailing Willow Tree. (1702)

Shiohi no tsuto = Gifts of the ebb tide = The shell book. (1789)

Shôchan no bôken = Adventures of Shôchan. (1923)

Snows of the North Country = Hokuetsu seppu. (1836)

Sonan gafu = The Sonan album. (1834)

Suifutei gigafu = The Suifutei Album (1784)

Taigado gaho = Taigado's painting method. (1804)

Tsuki hyakushi = 100 Aspects of the Moon. (1785-1792)

Tsuwamono tsukushi = Warriors. (1805)

Tsôzoku isho monogatari = A vernacular Aesop's fables (1872-75)

Tôkaidô gojûsantsugi emaki = The Tôkaidô handscrolls (1922)

Untitled album of surimono. (182-)

Untitled haikai anthology. (1793)

Uzumaki = The whirlpool (1913-1914)

Yakusha ezukushi = Pictures of Actors. (ca. 1702-1705)

Yakusha konotegashiwa = Actors on both sides of the leaf. (1803)

Yamato ezukushi = Pictures of Japan (1684)

Yamato jinbutsu gafu = The Album of Yamato People. (1800)

Yokohama kaikô kenbunshi = Reports from the open Port of Yokohama. (1862-1865)

Zenzô katsugan = All Phenomena Have Bright Eyes. (1813)

Zoku Koya Bunk = The second immortal Nagoya anthology (1798)

Zô Sanshôshi kyôka = Verses Presented to Sanshô. (1830)

= view images

= expand to see more titles

NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 700,000 images digitized from primary sources and printed rarities in the vast collections of The New York Public Library, including drawings, illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more.