A Mirror of Yoshiwara Beauties

Katsukawa Shunshō 勝川春章

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met acquired one of the finest known first editions of this volume when it brought in the entire collection of the Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow Collection of Japanese illustrated books in 2013. This much later modern printing is simply a work for studying how the awareness of a rare edition of a highly sought after book was kept alive in modern times through the printing of a popular edition. In this day and age, we can easily make digital reproductions of books, but even in the early twentieth century, publishers often resorted to the labor intensive means of woodblock printing to create new editions of famous books.

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