A Frontispiece Illustration [of 1900] (Hyakunen no Hana: Senkyuhyaku-nen no Kuchi-e)

Catalog note / 解説

a bijin examining the kuchi-e (frontispiece illustration) of an edition of the Bungei Kurabu magazine; the pale blue background and green highlights on the cover of the magazine are sprinkled with mica, the collar of her inner kimono is embellished with kirigane ('cut gold') 24 carat gold squares, the edges of the pages of the magazine are printed in karazuri ('blind-printing'), while the kuchi-e is palely printed using baren sujizuri to convey that we are seeing the reverse of the image; the series title Hyakunen no Hana and print title Senkyuhyaku-nen no Kuchi-e in karazuri on upper left margin, signed in kanji, Bin-ni at lower left followed by red artist's seal Binnie, numbered and signe…