Kitagawa Utamaro is one of the most well-known figures in the history of Japanese art, renowned for his portraits of beautiful women. He is recognised as having been the leading light of the Ukiyo-e School during its golden age, and his influence upon the work of Western artists has been beyond measure. He produced in the region of 2,000 woodblock prints, approximately one third of which take their subjects from the licensed pleasure quarter of Edo, with the remainder being made up of images of popular beauties, pairs of famous lovers, historical and mythical figures, domestic scenes, and the physiognomic studies for which he is best-known. With 90 reproductions of the artist’s prints, designs grouped and discussed according to subject, and with illustrations of publishers’ marks, artist’s signatures, and the names of figures commonly inscribed upon his works, this reference guide provides the most comprehensive resource for identifying the subjects portrayed in Utamaro’s prints to date.

Utamaro Revealed

Collia-Suzuki, Gina

Arts & Photography

Nezu Press

Benjamin Arnold Guppy loved turnips. He loved eating them, but most of all he loved throwing them. He also loved money and pain... extorting a lot of the former and causing an equal amount of the latter. A foul, sour-faced old swindler with a penchant for clucking like a chicken and more than a passing interest in the local postman, he was determined to get his hands on his neighbours' money, regardless of the cost. As it turned out, the price was his life.

The Wonderful Demise of Benjamin Arnold Guppy

Literature & Fiction

Humor & Satire

Osan is a prostitute within the famous Yoshiwara pleasure quarter, sold into the profession as a child. Sankatsu, her sister, is a respectable married woman and mother. The two sisters are separated by their situation in life, confined within their societal roles, and bullied by vengeful and domineering women; in Osan's case it is the brothel keeper's wife, and for Sankatsu it is her overbearing mother-in-law. Desperate to be reunited, they hatch a plan to end their misery and escape their respective prisons. Told through the correspondence exchanged between Osan and Sankatsu, and the letters exchanged by those close to the two sisters, My Dearest Osan is a tale of love, duty, betrayal and revenge in 19th century Japan.

My Dearest Osan

Nishibayashi, Marianne K.

Kitagawa Utamaro was the leading light of the popular Ukiyo-e school of woodblock print designers during its golden age, famous throughout Japan within his own lifetime, an immeasurable influence upon nineteenth century French artists, such as Vincent Van Gogh, Édouard Manet and Claude Monet, and is a continuing source of inspiration and admiration throughout the world today for his portraits of sumptuously garbed courtesans and sensitively drawn depictions of everyday life in eighteenth century Edo. This volume, the first catalogue to document all of Utamaro's known print designs in the broadsheet format, provides a comprehensive descriptive listing of the artist's works, along with more than a hundred and thirty reproductions of his prints, with accompanying indices to aid in the location of specific works by publisher's mark, subject, or title. This groundbreaking publication, the product of more than two decades of exhaustive research, forms a record of the artist's works that will serve as a lasting reference source for connoisseurs, curators, and dealers alike. Gina Collia-Suzuki is an artist and writer who lives and works on the southwest coast of England. She has been an avid collector of Japanese woodblock prints, in particular those designed by Kitagawa Utamaro, for more than two decades. Initially a student of Western art, she encountered Japanese woodblock prints for the first time in 1985 and was immediately taken by their striking and bold designs, the compositional skills of their designers and the abilities of the craftsmen responsible for carving the blocks. In 1986 she met Jack Hillier, the world-renowned Ukiyo-e scholar, who became her mentor, and their friendship lasted until Hillier's passing in 1995. For more than twenty years she has devoted herself to the study of the woodblock prints of Kitagawa Utamaro, and is the author of 'Utamaro Revealed: A Guide to Subjects, Themes and Motifs'.

The Complete Woodblock Prints of Kitagawa Utamaro: A Descriptive Catalogue

History & Criticism

Patricia Enid Guppy is in a pickle. With the aid of her husband, Benjamin, she has lied, swindled and blackmailed her way into positions of power and influence, ruining reputations and lives along the way whilst maintaining an outward show of respectability, for most of her eighty years of life. But when Benjamin is silly enough to go and get himself killed, Pat is left to fend for herself. Now, throughout the town of Sea View, people are beginning to talk, fingers are being pointed and mud is being thrown... and some of it is finally beginning to stick. Can hosting the Sea View Festival of Culture, with its over-sixties sequined talent show and display of sculpted sponges, return her to her former state of glory? Or will Pat's desperate crusade to recapture her past majesty, and the heady days of being crowned Queen of Sea View Parsnip Drive, prove to be the cause of her undoing?

The Delightful Undoing of Patricia Enid Guppy

In 1935, Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd. published The Room Opposite: And Other Tales of Mystery and Imagination by F. M. Mayor, a collection of sixteen tales that had been left unpublished at the author's death. It was issued with a recommendation from no less eminent a critic of ghost stories than M. R. James, who wrote, 'The stories in this volume which introduce the supernatural commend themselves to me very strongly.' Secondhand copies of the first edition are incredibly hard to come by, and the book has never been republished... until now. This new edition contains all sixteen stories, along with a long article which originally appeared in The Queen newspaper in 1905 entitled 'Life in a Touring Company'. This edition also includes an introduction by Gina R. Collia: 'F. M. Mayor: Author, Actress & Champion of the Superfluous Woman'.

The Room Opposite: And Other Tales of Mystery and Imagination

Mayor, F.M.

Collia, Gina R

Genre Fiction

George R. Preedy is one of the pen names of Margaret Gabrielle Vere Campbell, the writer best known as Marjorie Bowen. First published in 1932, 'The Devil Snar'd' is an eerie tale of supernatural influence; it was described by the Daily Herald as a 'ghost story fit to stand beside The Turn of the Screw.' Grace Fielding and her husband Philip have taken a house-Medlar's Farm-at a remote spot in Northumberland to get away from London and repair their broken marriage. Philip is in love with Angela Campion, an actress much younger than himself, but Grace will not give her husband a divorce, and Angela will not have him without the prospect of marriage. Philip, a well-known author, intends to use the dark history of Medlar's Farm-a tale of adultery, jealousy and murder-to write his next book, but Grace, already unwell due to the strain caused by her husband's affair, begins to see parallels between her own story and that of the murdered woman, Susanna Vavasour, who she believes is guiding her actions. As Philip works on his manuscript, his behaviour becomes more and more suspicious, and as Grace's mental state deteriorates, a tale of adultery and marital discord soon becomes one of jealousy, obsession and murderous revenge. 'The Devil Snar'd' has not been reissued since its last publication in 1933. This edition includes an introduction by Gina R. Collia: 'The Many Masks of Margaret Campbell'.

The Devil Snar'd

Bowen, Marjorie

Preedy, George R

It is seventeenth century England, a country divided in the aftermath of the English Civil War, and paranoia and superstition are rife throughout the land. In the village of Rithycombe in Somerset, Bridget Conyngham, the squire's beautiful young daughter, is abandoned to the mercy of lawless soldiers and paranoid villagers. Matthew Hopkins, Witchfinder General, is going about the country torturing anyone he doesn't like the look of, and the villagers of Rithycombe, suspicious of Bridget's healing abilities, are determined to save Hopkins the trouble of burning their witch. The novel 'Mistress Bridget' was originally published in 1898. This volume also includes all seven of E. Yolland's incredibly rare short stories.\nBefore now, not a single fact, not even the tiniest tidbit of information, had been discovered to shed light on the identity of E. Yolland. There was no clue to the writer's full name or sex, let alone anything more substantial. However, in the introduction to this volume, Gina R. Collia reveals the true identity of E. Yolland and paints a full and vivid picture of this forgotten Victorian author's life.

Mistress Bridget and Other Tales

Yolland, E

Through the Night: Tales of Shades and Shadows

Banks, Isabella

Banks, Mrs G Linnaeus

A Seventh Child

Winter, John Strange

Stannard, Henrietta Eliza Vaughan

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