Matsushima
(One of the Three Most
Famous Views of Japan)
Kazumasa Ogawa, ca 1892

Ogawa, K. (Kazumasa)
Matsushima
(One of the Three Most Famous Views of Japan) in Collotype & From Photographic Negatives Taken by Him
, Tokyo, K. Ogawa, Photographer, ca 1892-1895, Folio (11 3/4 x 16 in - 30 x 40.5 cm), decorated card covers, string ties, 6 collotype plates (1 lightly hand tinted and 5 black and white). Noted scenic views in the Matsushima area. The first two pages (front and back of a single sheet) are descriptive commentary on the Matsushima area. The comments are followed by 6 collotype plates. The tinted plate (1st plate in the book) ranges from light to very faint.

Covers. The covers on this book are the standard "types and views" covers found on K. Ogawa's collotype books of this period. On the outside they are lithographed in color with a repeating pattern of concentric overlapping half circles, stylized clouds with leaves inside and breaking waves in silver. The inside of the covers have a two color butterfly pattern. Approximately 2 1/2 inches of the head and foot of the spine are covered with a blue cloth fabric.

Dating the Book. As is typical of most of the K. Ogawa "Views and Types" collotype books, there is no title page or colophon for this book to assist in dating. In his Bibliography of the Japanese Empire, 1859-93, Wenckstern, describes this book as:

Matsushima, one of their most famous views, 6 plates, no text ($1.50).

I have seen this book with a tipped in colophon slip dating it to Meiji 28 (1895).

For information on Kazumasa Ogawa, click here.

 

All 6 Plates in This Book
(Click on the picture for a higher resolution image)

Plate 1. Lightly Hand Tinted Collotype

View of Matsushima

 
Plate 1. Faintly Hand Tinted Collotype

View of Matsushima

 
Plate 2. Black & White Collotype

Matsushima, Togekyo

 
Plate 3. Black & White Collotype

General View of Matsushima

 
Plate 4. Black & White Collotype

Town of Matsushima

 
Plate 5. Black & White Collotype

Bay of Matsushima

 
Plate 6. Black & White Collotype

Matsushima Godaido

Colophon (sometimes found tipped to the inside of the back cover)

Printed: Meiji 28 (1895).6.21
Distributed: Meiji 28 (1895).6.25


 

Common Characteristics of K. Ogawa's
"Types and Views" Series, 1892-1896

 

During the period from 1892 through 1896 Kazumasa Ogawa produced a series of photographic books with collotype plates which have several common characteristics. Because of these common characteristics, I call them the "Types and Views" series. This is not a series name that Ogawa used.

Individually, each of the books represent the work of a master photographer executing the results of his labor through a then state of the art high quality printing process. Considered as a series, these books form an amazing pictorial mosaic of Japanese life, customs, cultural treasures and scenic places, recorded as Japan emerged from relative isolation to the outside world and entered into the 20th century.

  • Size & Format. Large 4to/Small Folio (11 3/4 x 16 in - 30 x 40.5 cm) size in Western style horizontal format reading from front to back. Crepe paper books are smaller.

  • Covers and Bindings.

    • Front and back covers.

      The covers are made from a thick card stock type paper. On the outside they are lithographed in colors (gray/beige background with black, white, light and dark green and silver) with a repeating pattern of concentric overlapping half circles, stylized clouds with leaves inside and breaking waves in silver. The inside of the covers have a two color butterfly pattern.

       
      Variety Covers


      One book has been examined (Views of Tokyo, 1895) which is a variant from the norm. It is roughly 90% of the width and approximately 55% of the length (10 1/8 x 6 3/4 in - 25.5 x 17.4 cm) of the regular versions.

       

    • Double string ties. The covers have two double string type ties that are usually tied in a cross type pattern in the front. The crossed ties end in tassels. Occasionally the ties are not crossed in the front and these do not have a tassel.

    • Spines. Thicker books have a fabric type covering protecting the entire spine. On the thinner books there is sometimes a fabric strip (usually dark blue) covering approximately 2 1/2 inches at the head and foot of the spine. These spine covers are delicate and breakup easily and the norm is for them to be missing or badly deteriorated.

    • Title. The book title is lithographed in bamboo stylized lettering in a title box on the front cover which is framed by two silver lines. "K. Ogawa" is identified as the photographer, "Tokyo, Japan" is the location and the titles generally state "In Collotype & From Photographic Negatives Taken by Him." If the book has descriptive text, the author of that text is identified. Where not all the photographs were take by K. Ogawa it merely states "In Collotype." Some books were distributed by "Sole Agents" and that is stated along with the name and location of the agent.

  • Collotype Plates.

    • The plates were manufactured by the collotype process. This is a high quality mechanical process capable of creating sharp images with a wide variety of tones. For more information on the collotype printing process, click here.

    • Black and White versus Color Images. As a general rule the plates are printed in black and white. Occasionally they are hand colored. I am unaware of a book of this type where the plates were actually printed mechanically in color using a multi pass collotype process as you see in the Ogawa flower collotypes in the Brinkley books of 1897-1898. The few color plates found in this series of books are hand colored.

    • Descriptive Titles. Plates generally have a descriptive title in English placed at the foot of the image. In some cases the descriptive title is printed on the tissue guard protecting the plate and not on the plate. The descriptive titles on the plates were applied in a separate letter type printing process from the collotype process that created the actual image on the plate. On the back you often see the indentations where the title was impressed on the plate.

    • Paper Color and Thickness. The paper color of the collotype plates in this series is brown/tannish. The thickness is similar to a thin index card. While the paper is not limp, it bends very easily. Below is a relative color comparison of various papers found in this and other Ogawa collotype plates.

      1. Types and View books
      (1892-6)

      2. Landscape Gardening Supplement (1893)

      3. Sights and Scenes in Fair Japan (1910)

      4. Bright white paper for comparison

      Composite view

     

  • Collotype / Phototype. The titles generally state the plates are "In Collotype" but with some books the term "In Phototype" is used. Occasionally, the same book can be found (Celebrated Geysha of Tokyo, 12 plate version, for instance) where covers with either of the terms are found. In the context of Ogawa books "collotype" and "phototype" are synonymous. The term "phototype" is the French word for the collotype. The term was used primarily in Europe but collotype quickly became the preferred designation. I suppose it is possible that for books intended for export to Europe the title used the term phototype.

  • Colophons. Except in cases where a book had an author who wrote the descriptive text, colophons are generally not found with the books. However, I believe that most of the books were actually issued with Japanese language colophon slips inserted loose at the back of the book. The lack of these slips is what makes these books hard to date precisely. These colophon inserts are on thin paper and most of them probably became separated from the books over the years. I have seen one slip that was actually tipped to the inside back cover. Below is an example of a colophon insert slip.

    Costumes & Customs in Japan, Vol I and II

    Printed: Meiji 28(1895).6.21
    Distributed: Meiji 28(1895).6.25

    Books where there is an author who wrote the descriptive text generally have a Japanese language colophon printed on the inside back cover. Below is an example of this type of colophon.

    Sights and Scenes on The Tokaido

    Meiji 25(1892).5.11

  • Color Wooblock Inserts. Infrequently the larger format books (11 3/4 x 16 in - 30 x 40.5 cm) are found color woodblock inserts giving the title. These measure (12 x 15 3/4 in - 30.5 x 40 cm). They are placed in loose at the front of the volume. Since these inserts are wider than the book, they are folded on the right side 1 1/2 inches to fit under the covers. These inserts are printed on high quality paper. They are double fold with the paper sealed in the middle at the back. They bear a color woodblock image of a cherry tree in bloom. The name of the book is printed at the middle left. The inserts are found with and without the Kelly & Walsh imprint and address (No. 61, Main Street, Yokohama) and the statement "Sole Agents.". I have confirmed these inserts in editions of Japanese Life (Kelly Walsh imprint), and Customs and Costumes, Vol II (No Kelly Walsh imprint). It is my experience that these inserts are seldom found with the book. Below are examples of these inserts.


  • Crepe Paper Books. During the period from 1892~1918 Ogawa published a series of books all titled Illustrations of Japanese Life. There were four different books with the same title. These books were on crepe paper and contained color collotype plates. These books have covers patterned along the same lines as the standard types and views covers found on the non-crepe books. Below is a picture of a cover from one of these crepe paper books.

    For more information on these books, click here.


The Perry Expedition:    General Information  :   Related Books/Pubs
The Lithographs:    Characteristics   :    Condition    :    Listing    :    Buying
Order On-line:    Lithograph Price List  :   Book Price List
ABE Book List:    BaxleyBooks Inventory on ABE
Special Interest Books/Art:
    ~ K. Ogawa - Color Collotypes and Books/Prints
    ~ T. Hasegawa - Color Woodblock Books
    ~ Shimbi Shoin - Art Reproduction Books
    ~ Tamamura/Takagi, Kobe - Color Collotype Books
    ~ Georges Bigot - Etchings & Art
    ~ Keisuke Serizawa - Calendar Folios & Art
    ~ Woodblock Printing - Process & Miscellaneous Books
    ~ Japanese Woodblock Prints
    ~ 
Blackie the Photographer - Okinawa Photo Essay Books
Meiji Era - Japan Views & Images (Price Lists & Information):
    ~ Albumen Photos  :   Chromolithographs
    ~ Colored Albumen Photographs (from Brinkley Books)
    ~ Stereoviews  :   Kazumasa Ogawa Collotypes
    ~ CDV - K. Ogawa   :   CDV - Other   :   Cabinet Cards
    ~ Glass Slides, "Magic Lantern" - Hand Colored
    ~ Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita
PayPal Accepted:    Pay for Purchases with PayPal
Buying Books:    Our Book Buying Interests
BaxleyStamps:    Main Page  :   Ryukyu Stamps  :   Japan Stamps

  Frames Version   :   No Frames Version

Copyright - 2024 - George C. Baxley
Copyright and Fair Use Policy is here.


We Are Buying the 1856-7 Perry Expedition Books and Lithographs.
If you have material to sell, please visit this page:
Buying.

George C. Baxley
PO Box 807
Alamogordo, NM 88311

575.437.8707

Perry Expedition to Japan Books & Lithographs
BaxleyStamps.com  gbaxley@netmdc.com