
Ichirō Picture Album (Ichirō gafu) 一老画譜
- Date:
- 1823, Autumn eighth month (Bunsei 6)
- Medium:
- Woodblock printed book; ink and color on paper
- Source:
- Metropolitan Museum of Art
Description
Yashima Gakutei compiled the Ichirō Picture Album (Ichirō gafu) in 1823, gathering a sequence of his own woodblock-printed designs into a deluxe illustrated book intended for connoisseurs of Hokusai school imagery. The Metropolitan Museum of Art preserves an example of this volume, which stands among the most ambitious of Gakutei's career.
The album combines figural compositions, landscapes, still lifes, and natural-history subjects, presenting them in the small format favored by Edo-period illustrated books. Each opening reveals a careful balance of inked outline and color block, with the printing quality consistent with the surimono tradition that Gakutei knew intimately. Gauffrage, mica, and modulated tones appear across the pages, demonstrating that the album was conceived as a luxury object rather than a mass-market picture book.



