OGAWA, Kazumasa. Panoramic Japan. Tokyo, Ogawa, [1902].
Folio. Original silk over boards, hand-painted colour illustrations on covers surrounded by raised frame of patterned woven silk, front cover titled in gilt and with ornamental silk tie, all edges gilt, gilt-speckled endpapers; pp. [4], 57 collotype photographic plates, sectional titles on printed tissue-guards; light spotting to central silk panels, mild abrasures to edges, internally fine.
Very rare first edition, in the de-luxe binding. One copy, located in private hands is described as 'crepe paper wraps, cord stab ties and staple bound', another copy, once offered at a German auction was bound in patterned boards with printed label on front cover. Ogawa (1860-1929) is an outstanding pioneer in the development of photography and photomechanical printing in Japan. In the early 1880s he had studied portrait photography and the dry plate process, as well as collotype printing in the USA. On his return to Japan in 1884 he opened a photographic studio in Tokyo, and subsequently a printing business.
This is one of the rarest Ogawa publications with no copies in Library Hub or COPAC; Bristol City Council is holding a copy in their Museum Collections.
#2119932