Japanese Hand-Painted Gajō (Painting Album) — Gachō Ichi (画帳一), c. 1890–1920. A collaborative Meiji–Taishō painting album, Kobe / Kansai region. Orihon.
A Japanese orihon (accordion-style) painting album, bound in patterned green silk with title slip reading Gachō Ichi (画帳一 - “Picture Album No. 1”). Containing thirteen double-page spreads, each individually painted in ink and light colour on handmade paper. The album is entirely hand-painted, not printed, with brushwork showing fluid ink absorption and subtle pigment washes.
Each spread is signed and sealed by a different painter, making this a collaborative gajō, a format popular in the late Meiji and Taishō eras among Kansai literati and Shijō-school circles. Signatures include 道春 (Dōshun), 西山生 (Seizan), 妙堂 (Myōdō), 寿 (Kotobuki), and 芳年 (Yoshitoshi), alongside others, each with their red seals. Subjects range from birds, flowers, landscapes, humorous figures, to a striking Bodhidharma portrait, rendered in a lively and spontaneous brush manner.
The album’s provenance is tied to Kwansei Gakuin College, Kobe, with a contemporary ownership inscription in English to the front endpaper, situating the work securely within the Kansai cultural environment around 1900.
Collaborative painting albums were typically produced in very limited numbers, often as presentation or collectors’ pieces, and survive only rarely. The variety of hands, seals, and subject matter makes this both a work of art and a document of Japanese artistic networks in the late Meiji-Taishō period.
A good copy overall - cover with green silk brocade and onlaid hand painted paper title label. With some rubbing and wear. Corners bumped and worn. One old tape repair at hinge between pastedown and owner's inscription page. Remains of sticker removal on owner's page.
Paintings are clear and bright, but with scattered age spotting throughout. There is no silk brocade cover to the rear and it is not clear whether there ever was one or not.
A rare survival of a hand-painted Japanese gajō, with thirteen original double-page paintings by multiple artists.
Cover + Decorative pastedown + Endpaper with owner's inscription + (13) double page spread paintings.
Approximate dimensions: 212mm high x 153mm wide x 11mm deep.
Weight approximately: 148g.