A Beginner’s Pictorial Encyclopedia of Natural History

Tachibana Morikuni

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is a later edition of a crucial drawing manual of the eighteenth century, originally published in 1761. To my knowledge it is extremely hard to find a first edition of this work, and this edition dates precisely to the time when Morikuni impacted the art world most powerfully at the end of the eighteenth century, nearly a half century after his death. An artist such as Katsushika Hokusai drew inspiration for his own prints and visual encyclopedias from Morikuni’s wide-ranging depictions of the world around him. These volumes focus in particular on avian subjects.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art