About Digital Collections
Browse
Search only public domain materials
Search Browse About
Search only public domain materials
Items Collections Divisions
Digital Collections Using Images Using Data
Items Shiohi no tsuto

Shiohi no tsuto

More Details Cite This Item

Library division & collection with this item:

LIBRARY DIVISION
Spencer Collection

  • Tripiṭaka. Sūtrapiṭaka. Avataṃsakasūtra. Korean
  • Hieronymi Cardani...De Svbtilitate Libri XXI
  • 24 dessins isométriques
  • Feuerwerkbuch von 1420
  • Thérese philosophe, ou, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du P. Dirrag, & de Mademoiselle Eradice
  • Missal box
  • Gochi gozo himitsusho
  • A handbook for Greek and Roman lace making
  • Klänge
  • Per le felicissime nozze del nobile sig:r conte Gio: Battista Fullini colla nobile sig:a contessa Elisabetta Antonini
  • Book of nonsense
  • Trattato como se a da inbrigliare il cavallo e de tutti signali
  • Shidare yanagi
  • Untitled haikai anthology
  • Shiohi no tsuto
Previous Next

This Item

View this item elsewhere:

Title
Shiohi no tsuto
Additional title: Gifts of the ebb tide
Additional title: The shell book
Names
Kitagawa, Utamaro, 1753?-1806 (Artist)
Dates / Origin
Date Issued: 1789
Place: Edo
Library locations
Spencer Collection
Shelf locator: Sorimachi 464
Topics
Shells
Clamming
Genres
Books
Prints
Poetry
Notes
Content: COLLECTION HISTORY: The Spencer Collection at The New York Public Library, which concentrates on illustrated books of all periods and regions, is home to some 300 manuscripts and 1,500 printed books from Japan; the manuscripts range from the 12th to the 20th century, and the printed works from the year 770 to the present. Their careful gathering has been the work of three curators of that collection. The late Karl Kup was assiduous in acquiring manuscripts and printed books in the years just before and just after World War II. His carefully cultivated friendships with scholarly Japanese booksellers, including the greatest of these, the late Shigeo Sorimachi, enabled the Library to acquire manuscripts that constitute national treasures. In the mid-1970s, the late Joseph T. Rankin acquired en bloc Charles H. Mitchell's collection of some 750 printed books. The acquisition of most of the twentieth-century printed books and a few scrolls is in large part the work of Robert Rainwater, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Librarian of Art, Prints and Photographs, and Curator of the Spencer Collection, who retired in 2005. Working with booksellers in Japan and Europe, and with private collectors in the United States, he built up the printed components of the collection, so that the Spencer Collection now constitutes a major repository for the Japanese book arts, in quantity as well as in quality. Additionally, there is a notable collection of Japanese prints in the Print Collection of The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs. Developed from the 1901 founding gift by Charles Stewart Smith of 1,763 prints of the ukiyo-e school, its holdings now comprise some 2,000 prints, representing Japanese printmaking up to the present, as well as nearly 100 printed books. (Source: NYPL Digital Gallery)
Biographical/historical: BACKGROUND: Among the most beautiful and moving books ever created, _ehon_ - or "picture books," in Japanese; "e" = picture; "hon" = book - are one of the true glories of Japanese art but are little known today, even in Japan, because of their great rarity. This digital presentation offers a glimpse of the wonderful variety of _ehon_, their breathtaking exuberance, sophisticated artistry, sensuality, unparalleled originality, intellectual gravity, playful spirit, and lightness of touch. _Ehon_ are part of an incomparable 1,230-year-old Japanese tradition. Created by artists and craftsmen, most _ehon_ also feature essays, poems, or other texts written in beautiful, distinctive calligraphy. They are by nature collaborations: visual artists, calligraphers, writers, and designers join forces with papermakers, binders, block cutters, and printers. The books they create are strikingly beautiful, highly charged microcosms of deep feeling, sharp intensity, and extraordinary intelligence. The earliest _ehon_ were made as religious offerings or talismans, but the great flowering of _ehon_ began in the early modern period (1600-1868) and has continued, with new media and new styles and subjects, to the present. _Shiohi no tsuto_ (_Gifts of the Ebb Tide_, 1789; commonly referred to in English as _The Shell Book_) by Kitagawa Utamaro, one of the supreme achievements of the _ehon_ tradition, is reproduced in full in this digital presentation. _Michimori_ (ca. 1604), a luxuriously produced libretto for a Nō play, is also featured, as are Saito Saitō Shūho's cheerful _Kishi enpu_ (_Mr. Ginger's Book of Love_, 1803), Kamisaka Sekka's brilliant _Momoyogusa_ (_Flowers of a Hundred Worlds_, 1910), and many more. The magnificent _ehon_ tradition originated in Japan and developed there under very specific conditions, but like any living tradition it has long since burst its bounds (some of the best modern _ehon_ have been made by artists who are not Japanese by birth). As this digital presentation makes manifest, when artists meet readers in these contrived, protected, focused, sacred book "worlds," the possibilities for pleasure, insight, and inspiration are limitless. (Source: NYPL Digital Gallery)
Citation/reference: RELATED RESOURCES: Keyes, Roger S. _Ehon: The Artist and the Book in Japan_ (2006) describes in detail 70 of the _ehon_ in The New York Public Library's collection (many of which are included in this digital presentation). Published on the occasion of a major exhibition ‹http://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/ehon-artist-and-book-japan› of the same title presented at the Library, October 20, 2006 - February 4, 2007, the book is available online from The Library Shop ‹http://shop.nypl.org/›. (Source: NYPL Digital Gallery)
Citation/reference: RELATED RESOURCES › GENERAL WORKS: Brown, Yu-ying. _Japanese Book Illustration_ (1988); Hillier, Jack. _The Art of the Japanese Book_. 2 vols. (1987); Kornicki, Peter. _The Book in Japan: A Cultural History from the Beginnings to the Nineteenth Century_ (1998) (Source: NYPL Digital Gallery)
Citation/reference: RELATED RESOURCES › MATERIALS, STRUCTURE, AND TECHNIQUES OF _EHON_: Barrett, Timothy. _Japanese Papermaking: Traditions, Tools and Techniques_ (1983); Ikegami, Kōjirō. _Japanese Bookbinding: Instructions from a Master Craftsman_. Trans. Barbara B. Stephan (1986); Salter, Rebecca. _Japanese Woodblock Printing_ (2002) (Source: NYPL Digital Gallery)
Citation/reference: RELATED RESOURCES › FACSIMILES: Naganobu, Kano. _Momotarō and the Island of Ogres_. A Japanese folktale, retold, with a postscript, by Stephanie Wada (2005); Onishi, Hiroshi. _On a Riverboat Journey: A Handscroll by Itō Jakuchū with Poems by Daiten_ (1989); Pekarik, Andrew J. _The Thirty-six Immortal Women Poets: A Poetry Album with Illustrations by Chōbunsai Eishi_ (1991); Smith, Henry. _Hokusai: One Hundred Views of Mt. Fuji_ (1988); Stevenson, John. _Yoshitoshi's One Hundred Aspects of the Moon_ (2001) (Source: NYPL Digital Gallery)
Citation/reference: RELATED RESOURCES › OTHER EXHIBITION AND LIBRARY CATALOGUES: _Books as Art: From Taisyo Period Book Design to Contemporary Art Objects_ (2001); Mitchell, C. H., and Osamu Ueda. _The Illustrated Books of the Nanga, Maruyama, Shijo and Other Related Schools of Japan: A Biobibliography_ (1972); Murase, Miyeko. _Tales of Japan: Scrolls and Prints from The New York Public Library_ (1986) (catalogue of an exhibition held in 1986 at The New York Public Library); Sorimachi, Shigeo. _Catalogue of Japanese Illustrated Books and Manuscripts in the Spencer Collection of The New York Public Library_ (1978); Toda, Kenji. _Descriptive Catalogue of Japanese and Chinese Illustrated Books in the Ryerson Library of the Art Institute of Chicago_ (1931; reprinted 2005) (Source: NYPL Digital Gallery)
Physical Description
Woodcuts
Extent: 1 book : woodblock prints, color ; 27 x 19.3 cm.
Fanfold book
Type of Resource
Still image
Text
Languages
Japanese
Identifiers
NYPL Digital Gallery Description: 32956
Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): 4832eb40-c83f-0133-4c16-00505686a51c
Rights Statement
The New York Public Library believes that this item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States, but did not make a determination as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries. This item may not be in the public domain under the laws of other countries. Though not required, if you want to credit us as the source, please use the following statement, "From The New York Public Library," and provide a link back to the item on our Digital Collections site. Doing so helps us track how our collection is used and helps justify freely releasing even more content in the future.

Item timeline of events

  • 1789: Issued
  • 2018: Digitized
  • 2025: Found by you!
  • 2026

MLA Format

Spencer Collection, The New York Public Library. "Shiohi no tsuto" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1789. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-ca33-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Chicago/Turabian Format

Spencer Collection, The New York Public Library. "Shiohi no tsuto" New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed April 17, 2025. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-ca33-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

APA Format

Spencer Collection, The New York Public Library. (1789). Shiohi no tsuto Retrieved from https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-ca33-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

Wikipedia Citation

<ref name=NYPL>{{cite web | url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-ca33-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99 | title= (still image) Shiohi no tsuto, (1789) |author=Digital Collections, The New York Public Library |accessdate=April 17, 2025 |publisher=The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations}}</ref>

Shiohi no tsuto