Woodblock Print Book by Suikei: Selected Tang Poems

Green covers with a faint cloud pattern, and a title slip that has seen some handling.

This woodblock print book, Selected Tang Poems, comes from Japan, is dated 1791, and is ink on paper, with the name Suikei in the record. Illustrated editions of Tang dynasty poetry were popular in Edo Japan, where Chinese verse was widely read and pictures helped carry the poems to a wider audience. The book is bound in the traditional stab-sewn manner, with red thread along the right edge. A pale title slip runs down the left side of the cover, inscribed in characters and stamped with a red seal. It is 6.2 inches wide and 8.9 high.

Poems a thousand years old, packed for travel in 1791.