Shozoku Chakuyo Zu [illustration of Garments] - Traditional Japanese Samurai Attire.

An outstanding illustrative work to record the details of traditional Japanese samurai attire, produced by Imaizumi Sadasuke, a scholar of the Kokugaku movement which emphasized Japanese classical studies who evidently researched the works of the eighteenth century noble Heizo Sadatake Ise. Woodblock print. The complete work. 8vo. 2 volumes, opening from left to right, 40 pages combined, with 35 woodcut images, all of which are beautifully hand-painted in full colour. Text is in Japanese. Each volume with red ink stamp to margin of first leaf, and title noted in manuscript to bottom fore-edge. In publisher's original yellow striped paper boards, each volume with title slip to front. Traditional karitoji binding ("semi-bound" meaning title page and contents without a book cover) string-stitched at spine, fukurotoji style ("bound-pocket" with folded leafs bound into spine), and opening from left to right. Each volume measures approximately 18 x 25 x 1 cm. Indication of additional small label removed from covers, otherwise in very good and original condition, a stellar work with vivid, meticulously coloured, woodcut illustration, internal crisp and clean. Striking woodcut illustrations of samurai clothing, painted with such meticulous detail to bring depth and vibrant colour, each featuring explanatory text, numerous styles are shown. Variants between the social classes are explained, ranging from lower samurai with simple garments and accoutrements such as banners and ogi (folding fan), to upper officers whose kimono was made of the highest quality decorative fabric and who carried various military arms including the katana (curved sword), the tachi (traditional sword). We also see the shaku - a narrow board held in the right hand when one wears sokutai - traditional ceremonial court dress. Based on the hand-painted manuscript scroll produced in Anei 8 (1779) by Japanese noble and scholar Heizo Sadatake Ise, and his famous guidebook for samurai, the present work serves as a vestige of hereditary eminence. Imaizumi Sadasuke (1863-1944), sometimes seen as Imaizumi Teisuke, was a Kokugaku scholar, an educator and shintoist of the Meiji, Taisho and Showa periods.