Koshiro Onchi – Records of Nature: Essays and Photographs

Koshiro Onchi. 恩地孝四郎

Hakubutsushi: zuihitsu shashin. 博物志 : 隨筆·写真

(Records of Nature: Essays and Photographs)

Tokyo, Genkosha) 1942.

[2], 141, [3]pp. illustrated throughout with 107 b/w in-text photographic reproductions.

27 x 19 cm. Red-lettered illustrated dust-jacket over cloth, in its original printed cardboard slipcase.

EUR 650

Scarce and unusual work by Onchi Koshiro (1891-1955), a noted Japanese print-maker, photographer, and one of the fathers of the Sosaku-hanga movement in the early decades of 20th-century Japan. The book is a stunning tour de force, as it shows the author’s incredible ability to see abstract and surreal beauty in the natural environment. The first 83 pages show photographs of various plants, followed by photographs of insects, reptiles, fishes, birds, cats and cows (pp. 84-130), and ends with pictures of animals in a zoo (pp.131-139). Some of the stark close-up portraits of plants are reminiscent of Karl Blossfeldt’s work. Onchi’s acoompanying text is comprised of comtemplative essays and childhood remenices on his various subjects, also describing their meanings for him. The work was printed in a limited number of 1500 copies.

Very nice copy, the slipcase slightly browned at the edges, the dust jacket very slightly dusty, slightly more so on the spine.