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Breathtaking Collection of Japanese Artists' Books on Display for First Time at The New York Public Library Buddhist Sutras, Calligraphic Verse, and Contemporary Artists' Books from 764 to Present Included; Exhibition Juxtaposes Old and New in Sections on Origins, The Art of the Book, Heaven, Earth, and Humanity Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan on view from October 20, 2006 - February 4, 2007  Prince Genji visits Lady Rokujô, attributed to Chôjirô 長次郎 (ca. early 17th century) From: The Green Branch (Sakaki 榊), Chapter 10 of The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari 源氏物語). Kyoto, ca. early 17th century The New York Public Library, Spencer Collection The Japanese literary tradition, dating from as early as the 8th century, is among the richest and most enduring of any country in the world, and ehon – or “picture books” – are one of the glories of world art. The New York Public Library’s new exhibition, Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan, calls attention to the Library’s world-renowned holdings of Japanese books, prints, and manuscripts. Opening October 20, 2006, Ehon includes approximately 280 objects, including books with printed illustrations, manuscripts, drawings, woodblock prints, and photographs. Among the many treasures on view are Itô Jakuchû’s 38-foot scroll from 1767, Aboard the Ship of Inspiration, depicting a voyage along Japan’s Yodo River, and Kitagawa Utamaro’s Gifts of the Ebb Tide (The Shell Book), a 1789 poetry book that is among one of the most beautiful books ever published. Joining the majority of Japanese artists in the exhibition are a number of artists from other countries who participate in the Japanese bookmaking tradition. Ehon is on view in two galleries of the Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. “The New York Public Library has built comprehensive collections that document the heritage of countries from around the world,” said Paul LeClerc, the Library's President. “For scholars and researchers interested in Japanese culture, the brilliant collection of ehon displayed in this exhibition, along with materials from our Asian and Middle Eastern Division, Spencer Collection, Print Collection, and World Languages Collection, provide Library users with a current and historical view of the country’s culture. Much of this material is also now available electronically through our Digital Gallery which allows the Library to share its numerous international collections with users from any corner of the globe.” The exhibition is curated by Roger S. Keyes, visiting scholar in East Asian Studies at Brown University and former Mel and Lois Tukman Fellow at The New York Public Library’s Center for Scholars and Writers. All of the works in this exhibition are from the collections of The New York Public Library, primarily the Spencer Collection and the Print Collection of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. “The Spencer Collection at The New York Public Library is home to over 300 manuscripts and 1,500 printed books from Japan,” said David Ferriero, Andrew W. Mellon Director and Chief Executive of the Research Libraries, The New York Public Library. “Their careful gathering over the course of the last 60 years has been the work of three dedicated curators, the late Karl Kup and Joseph T. Rankin, and Robert Rainwater who retired as Curator of the Spencer Collection in 2005. Through the foresight and perseverance of these curators, the Library has built one of the largest and most significant collections of ehon in a library of the Western Hemisphere. Today we continue to acquire significant Japanese materials and materials related to the art of the book.” The exhibition is unique in interspersing ehon of different periods to explore the tradition, transmission, and transformation of ehon over time and facilitate a dialogue among the works on display. Through juxtapositions of old and new items, it is hoped that contemporary ehon artists coming to the exhibition will see their work in a new and different context and that the exhibition will spark a renewed appreciation of ehon in the Japanese community. The exhibition spans two galleries. The first section, “Origins,” in the Wachenheim Gallery, features early Buddhist books and a few secular manuscripts. Four thematic sections are on view in Gottesman Hall. “The Art of the Book” focuses on the nature of ehon as it has developed over the last four hundred years. “Heaven,” “Earth,” and “Humanity,” a traditional Asian division of the cosmos, provides an opportunity to see parallel visions of common themes and to appreciate the range of artists’ work. The cumulative effect of an ehon, the importance of time, and the conversations between picture and picture, picture and text, artist and reader, are difficult to convey in an exhibition, in which books must be shown in closed cases and can be open only to one or two pages. Rather than being a limitation, it is hoped that this will prompt another kind of conversation, among the individual books and their readers. To assist the viewer in making such connections, the exhibition is laid out in a non-linear fashion, with some of the cases containing “Art of the Book” materials located within “Heaven,” “Earth,” and “Humanity.” Object labels refer viewers to similar or contrasting images in other parts of the exhibition. To provide a taste of the traditional intersection within a single book, two volumes are shown in their entirety on touchscreens: Volume I of Flowers of a Hundred Worlds in “The Art of the Book” and Gifts of the Ebb Tide (The Shell Book) in “Earth.” In addition, a didactic panel titled “Reading Ehon” provides a detailed look at the content, illustration, and production of “Nesting cranes and pine tree,” an image from Yamaguchi Soken’s The Playful Cranes Anthology (1818) on view in “Earth.” “One secret of the appeal of ehon is that their artists see with such imagination and clarity, draw with such verve, and embrace any subject, however humble or imperfect,” explains exhibition curator Roger S. Keyes. “Ehon are indescribably intimate. They are so beautifully made, of such attractive and sensuous materials, that they attract, seize, and hold a reader’s attention. Ehon provide relevation, energy, and inspiration and turn willing readers into artists. They empower people.”  Shôchan, Squirrel, and Princess, by Kabashima Katsuichi 樺島勝一 (1888–1963). Cover of: The Adventures of Shôchan for Children (Otogi Shôchan no bôken お伽正チャンの冒険). Osaka, 1924–25. The New York Public Library, Spencer Collection
Origins The Art of the Book Kaburagi Kiyokata’s Lotus Rising from a Whirlpool (1913-14) demonstrates how expressive a book’s cover can be, through its bold use of colors and symbology of a brush stroke depicting water. In aesthetic contrast, immaculate detail and exquisite line drawing converge in Katsukawa Shunsho’s The Courtesans Senzan, Chozan, and Toyoharu of the Chojiya House Reading. In addition to the richly illustrated flows of the courtesan’s robes, distinct details are easily visible, including a a learned commentary on The Tale of Genji that rests in an alcove in the background, for the courtesans’ reading enjoyment. Heaven The world’s first printed books were enchantments directed toward invisible beings that could have a good or bad effect on the human world. Japanese examples of these works on view include a small wooden pagoda that houses incantations. Ordered by Empress Shotoku in 764, the incantation of The Million Prayer Towers (Hyakumanto) was to restore equilibrium and create long-term stability and peace. Kawada Kikuji’s 1965 masterpiece The Map is a brilliantly-designed requiem published on the twentieth anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The reader must pass through five separate boundaries before reaching Kawada’s photographs, the silent, timeless sanctuary at the core of the book. Earth Katsushika Hokusai is an iconic Japanese artist. The exhibition includes early printings of One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji, one of his masterpieces, and “Fuji in a winter wind,” an original preparatory drawing for the book that clearly shows his working methods. Gifts of the Ebb Tide (The Shell Book), 1789, by Kitagawa Utamaro, transports the reader to the actual Shinagawa beach where people stroll along conversing and hunting for shells. The heart of the book is a series of exquisite studies of thirty-six seashells with accompanying verse. The book ends in a brightly-lit room at night, where a group of women have begun a “shell contest,” matching the separated halves of painted or inscribed clam shells. The book is printed on thick, luxurious hosho paper with mica, embossing, mother-of-pear, and actual gold bound with hand-painted indigo paper. Humanity The original “bad boy” of Japanese photography, Moriyama Daidô, is represented with his Japan Theater Photo Album (1968) and its photo of a transvestite. There is both an aggression and a sadness to the image, taken close-up with a blank background. Kabuki theater is featured in Utagawa Kunisada’s Poems for Ichikawa Sanjô from the Sanjô Circle in Edo (1829), in which the actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VII is given the royal treatment with a brightly-colored woodblock. Companion Volume Curatorial Talks Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan Docent Tours About The New York Public Library Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan is on view October 20, 2006 through February 4, 2007 in the D. Samuel and Jeane H. Gottesman Exhibition Hall and the Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III Gallery at The New York Public Library’s Humanities and Social Sciences Library, located at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan. The exhibition is open during regular Library hours: Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sundays, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Mondays and the following days: Saturday November 11; Thursday, November 23; and Sundays, December 10, 24, and 31. Admission is free. For more information, call 212-869-8089 or visit www.nypl.org. Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan has been made possible in part through the generous support of the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation. Additional support has been provided by Robert Rosenkranz, Anne van Biema, the Toshiba International Foundation, The Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation, Inc., public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; The Blakemore Foundation; Robert and Mary Looker; the Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation; Asian Cultural Council; The Japan Foundation; The International Fine Print Dealers Association; Martha J. Fleischman; and the J.C.C. Fund. Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos and Family and by Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III. ###
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