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Activities at the Fair [return to all activities]

Japanese Illustrated Books
Sunday, November 18, 2007 3:00 PM

• Historic and Stylistic Overview of the World of Japanese Books, Charles Vilnis

Charles Vilnis of Boston Book Company has been in pursuit of Japanese illustrated books throughout his career. As an undergraduate in the early 1970s, he studied Japanese history, then apprenticed at a Japanese trading company for a few years and has been specializing in Japanese books and printing as a bookseller since before he joined the ABAA in 1980. A long stint as a graduate student in Japanese art and literature honed his skills. Now, he spends a good part of each year traveling in Japan, searching for rarities and researching the field.

Over the course of the last few years, a growing appreciation for the book arts has increased awareness of one of the oldest book cultures on earth, that of East Asia and particularly, Japan. The wonderful exhibit and catalogue created around the extensive collection of Japanese ehon (illustrated books) at the NYPL, as curated by Roger Keyes, was an important step in understanding the importance of the visual in that tradition. In addition, recent valuable work digitizing MFA Boston’s hitherto neglected collection of Japanese illustrated books and the well-received Ito Jakuchu show in Philadelphia have further advanced interest in the intersection between the artist and book, traditionally and contemporaneously, in Japan.

Charles will bring slides and photographs to illustrate his overview, historical and stylistic, of the world of Japanese books. Attendees will also be afforded the chance to view a group of representative works from the several periods and styles he will be discussing, and there will be opportunities to ask questions about the field in general and about the books presented in particular.

The illustration that accompanies this note is from Ito Jakuchu’s woodblock-printed TAIGADO GAFU, published in 1804, one of the loveliest examples of the Japanese Nanga genre in illustrated books.