A refined Edo-Meiji period woodblock-printed book, titled 唐詩選畫本 (Tōshisen Ehon) — “Illustrated Selections of Tang Poetry.”
This beautifully crafted work presents Chinese Tang dynasty poems accompanied by Japanese-style landscape illustrations and calligraphic reproductions, blending literary artistry with visual beauty.
Each page combines bold brush-style characters with fine woodblock-printed mountains, rivers, and poetic vignettes, evoking the classical harmony between nature, poetry, and calligraphy admired by scholars of East Asia.
This edition was designed as both a study text for calligraphers and poets and as a decorative artistic publication for cultured readers of the Edo and early Meiji periods (circa 1850–1880).
Title: 唐詩選畫本 (Tōshisen Ehon – Illustrated Tang Poetry Selections)
Content: Famous Tang dynasty poems (by Li Bai, Du Fu, Zhang Ji, etc.) with Japanese annotations and brushwork models
Features:
Beautiful woodblock calligraphy reproductions
Ink landscape illustrations of rivers, mountains, and scholars
Parallel Chinese text and Japanese phonetic gloss for study
Date: Late Edo to early Meiji (c. 1850–1880)
Format: Fukuro-toji (traditional stitched binding)
Technique: Hand-carved woodblock printing on washi paper
Language: Classical Chinese with Japanese annotations
Books like Tōshisen Ehon were prized in Japan’s literati circles as tools of cultural refinement — merging Confucian education, calligraphy training, and artistic sensibility.
They reflect Japan’s intellectual admiration for Tang culture and the transmission of Chinese poetic aesthetics through Japanese printing mastery.
