Pictorial Designs for All Artisans, (Banshoku zukō), vol.1

Pictorial Designs for All Artisans (Banshoku zuko), volume 1, is a print by Katsushika Taito II dated 1835 and held by the Victoria and Albert Museum. The book—a pattern compendium for craftsmen across many trades—was one of Taito II's most useful and widely used publications, providing motifs and small compositions that lacquerers, metalsmiths, textile designers, and other craft workers could adapt for their own production. The 1835 date for volume one places it in the middle of Taito II's most productive period, when he was also issuing his major surimono and contributing to harimaze sheets. The Victoria and Albert Museum's holding of volume one complements the Art Institute of Chicago's complete five-volume set, providing a parallel record of the book's reach and survival. Pattern books of this kind were treated as working references rather than aesthetic objects, and their survival often depended on careful storage by particular workshop owners or, later, by collectors with an interest in the design source material of Japanese craft. The V and A's holding reflects the broader European interest in Japanese decorative arts that built collections throughout the late nineteenth century.