About This Book

Volume 4 of four volumes comprising Seihō shūgachō (Seiho's Guide to Drawing), all of which are in this collection.  Each volume consists of a table of contents, twelve woodblock prints (each on its own sheet), and a colophon.  The prints are arranged in order of increasing complexity.  The prints in the first two volumes are black only, those in the third and fourth volume include color.  Each print is marked with Seihō's seal, black in the first two volumes, red in volumes three and four.

The English label on the front cover of Volume 1 suggests that this copy was exported for foreign sale.  This work was listed by one of the pioneer purveyors of Japanese art in America, Bunkio Matsuki of Boston, in his Catalogue of Japanese Artists' Materials and it is likely that this is where this collection's volumes were originally purchased. 

Published just after Seihō's return from Europe, Seihō shūgachō was exhibited at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, held in St. Louis, Missouri, as part of the Japanese government's display of Books and Publications, Group 17.¹  A painting of Seihō's was also exhibited.

¹ Exhibition of the Empire of Japan, official catalogue, International Exposition, St. Louis, 1904, Press of Woodward & Tiernan Printing Co., p. 69.

Source: The Artist's Touch, The Craftsman's Hand: Three Centuries of Japanese Prints from the Portland Art Museum, Maribeth Graybill, Portland Art Museum, Oregon, 2011, P. 248.
"A pupil of Kōno Bairei, Takeuchi Seihō became the unquestioned leader among painters working in Kyoto during the early twentieth century. At the young age of eighteen, he was already winning awards at domestic competitions. Like Watanabe Seitei before him, he traveled in Europe, sketching everywhere he went. This book was issued the year after his return to Japan.

Printed on deluxe paper with specially designed covers and bindings, Seihō’s Painting Instruction Album is more of a luxury object than a tool for the would-be self-taught painter. Nevertheless, the designs progress from the simplest monochrome ink sketches, in volumes 1 and 2, to more complex motifs with color, in volumes 3 and 4."

Source: The Japanese Print Since 1900: Old dreams and newvisions, Lawrence Smith, British Museum Publications Ltd., 1983, p. 10, 11, 38.
"These volumes...stand at the end of a tradition over a century old of gafu, or 'picture albums', consisting of woodblock reproductions of a specific artist's work and styles.  Two of the volumes are in black ink outline, and two are in colour.  The black and white designs take advantage of the translucency of Japanese paper so that they show through invitingly before they are reached.  Here we see the bird on the left-hand sheet, while we see on the right the peasant [really a scarecrow] in reverse, showing through from the previous page."