Hirase Yoichiro and his woodblock publications

LELLA & GIANNI MORRA
Fine Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books and Works of Art

HIRASE YOICHIRO AND HIS WOODBLOCK PUBLICATIONS

Hirase Yoichiro (1859-1925) was a collector, dealer and scholar of Malacology active in Kyoto at the beginning of 20th century. Hirase began his collection of shells around 1898 and in 1907 published the first issue of the “Conchological Magazine”. In 1913 he opened a museum devoted to shells in the Okazaki area near the Kyoto zoo. Hirase became internationally well-known, selling shells to collectors and museums in Europe and the United States.

The Hirase's advertising in The Official Catalogue. Kyoto Commercial Museum. 1910.
The Museum' handbook "The Album of The Hirase Concological Museum". 1915.
Hirase's portrait and the Museum's building illustrated in the Museum's handbook.

Among his many scientific publications, Hirase published two woodblock print books through the leading Kyoto art publisher Unsodo. The first one, the single-volume Kaigara Danmen Zuan, in traditional Japanese string binding, is dated Taisho 2 (1913) and, except for two fine colour plates, comprises black and white decorative patterns made from shell sections. It was presented in the publisher’s catalogue, as a “design book” (Unsodo no. 652). The title on the cover is followed by the number ichi (one) but no other volume are known as a sequel for this work.

The "Kaigara Danmen Zuan". One volume. Kyoto, Unsodo, 1913.
The cover, illustrations and colophon.

The second woodblock publication titled Kai Chigusa (One Thousand Kinds of Shells) was much more ambitious.
All the plates were in colour and the shells were depicted in an accurate, realistic way. Ten orihon style volumes were planned, to illustrate 1000 shells as announced in the title, but due to later financial restraints only four volumes were published. The first one appeared in 1914, the second and third in 1915 and the fourth in 1922. Each concertina volume has orange silk cover and show 100 shells illustrated on twenty plates.

In the English preface to the second volume of Kai Chigusa, Hirase explains the reason he chose the old traditional woodblock printing process, “a peculiar art of our country”, instead of modern colour lithography or three-color printing.
He further proposed his book as "...being not wholly for the benefit of scientific studies but rather for the purpose of reference for artists and technologists.."

This publication was also introduced in the publisher’s catalogue as “for designers’ companion” (Unsodo no. 653 with title Kai Sen Shu).
It is clear that both author and publisher were interested in reaching a wider audience beyond the shell collectors, and the use of woodblock printing was an additional merit for their publications.

The exact number of printings and copies produced of Kai Chigusa is known.
This is of special interest for anyone interested in Japanese woodblock books and gives an insight into the production terms of the publisher Unsodo.
In the article “Dates of publication of Yoichiro Hirase’s Kai Chigusa” by Paul Callomon of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the author reproduces a detailed list of all printings and dates of publication obtained from Unsodo by an American scientist, Alvin R. Cahn, in 1957.
The press run and dates can be summarized as follows:

First volume: eight printings from 1914 to 1937and a total of 880 copies.

Second volume: six printings from 1915 to 1935 and 750 copies.

Third volume: five printings from 1915 to 1933 and 650 copies.

The press run varies from 300 copies for the first printing of all four volumes to 100, 50 and 30 copies for later printings.
The 30 copies made in 1935 and 1937 seem to be a very small production runs, but even if they were not done on commission, it was probably still profitable for Unsodo to do a kind of “print-on–demand” publishing.

Yamada Unsodo Co., An Illustrated Catalogue of Books, Periodicals & Albums for Art & Artistic Designs. Kyoto 1915.