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Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.
Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.
Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.
Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.
Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.
Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.
Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.
Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.
Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.
Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.
Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.
Book cover of An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking: The Ehon Taka Kagami; featuring a bird of prey. Published by Marquand Books.

An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking

The Ehon Taka Kagami

By (author) Kawanabe Kyōsai
Edited by Karl-Heinz Gersmann
Edited by John Goodell
Contributions by Keiya Nakajima
Contributions by Alain Briot
Contributions by Sadamura Koto

£55.00

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  • Kyōsai's fascinating publication on the ancient art of Japanese falconry, the Ehon Taka Kagami, is reproduced for the first time with full English translations
Full Description

Kawanabe Kyōsai (pen name Kawanabe Tôiku) is a globally celebrated 19th century Japanese artist with an astonishing reper­toire of styles and artistic themes. His wood­cut print picture book on falconry, Ehon Taka Kagami (The Mirror of Hawking), first pub­lished in 1863, remains relatively unknown among his modern admirers. Nonetheless, An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking is an invaluable record of an ancient art. Kyōsai was commissioned by a retired daimyo (feudal lord) to create studies depicting traditional Japanese falconry, which may have inspired the illustrated plates of the An Illustrated Mirror of Hawking. He added explanatory script to caption most plates, as well as stories, poems, and songs chronicling falconry and celebrating nature. This edition provides the first proper translation of the Ehon Taka Kagami, revealing the meaning of the words accompanying each plate to non-Japanese readers. In addition to fully reprinting the original images and texts, this edition includes contextual essays and reference images that provide important background information about Kyōsai, the history of Japanese falconry, and the origins of this unique publication.

About the Author

Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831–1889) is a globally celebrated artist and among the most talented painters of 19th Century Japan. Karl-Heinz Gersmann is a falconer, historian, and collector based in Germany. John Goodell is Executive Director and Chief Curator of The Archives of Falconry in Boise, Idaho. Keiya Nakajima is a falconer and Executive Director of The Japan Falconiformes Center, and served the International Association for Falconry and Conservation of Birds of Prey as Vice President for Asia. Alain Briot is a French medical doctor and an expert in Japanese art and language. Alain holds a diploma in Japanese language from the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations and is a member of the Japanese Society for the History of Medicine. Sadamura Koto is the Curator of the Israel Goldman Collection, London, and a Visiting Researcher in the Department of Asia at the British Museum since 2016.

Distributed for The Archives of Falconry

Specifications
Publisher
Marquand Books
ISBN
9798987929377
Published
8th Sep 2025
Binding
Hardback
Territory
World
Size
229 mm x 229 mm
Pages
164 Pages
Illustrations
132 color
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