A woodblock-printed book on the art of falconry, illustrated with meticulous images of hawks, falconers, equipment, and techniques, rendered in ink on paper with mica highlights. Kyosai's encyclopedic visual curiosity extended to aristocratic pursuits like falconry, which had ancient roots in Japanese court culture but continued to be practiced by samurai and nobles into the nineteenth century. The mica-enriched paper gives the illustrations a lustrous quality appropriate to what was, in its heyday, a pursuit of considerable elegance and expense.
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
Woodblock print
An Illustrated Mirror of Falconry, vol. 1, pt. 1 was created by Kawanabe Kyosai (河鍋暁斎) in c. 1863–68.
An Illustrated Mirror of Falconry, vol. 1, pt. 1 depicts birds & flowers, daily life, and animals.
An Illustrated Mirror of Falconry, vol. 1, pt. 1 measures 15.9 × 22.6 cm (Oban format).
