Guide to Famous Places in Tokyo, Revised
(Kaisei Tōkyō meisho annai), 1890

Copperplate-printed book

Private Collection

Nagashima Shungyō is known for his woodblock print designs showing modern innovations in the late nineteenth-century bustling metropolis of Tokyo. In this guidebook Nagashima presents famous places from the city’s past and present. This opening shows renowned sites in the Ueno district: notably, at the upper right the mausoleum for the first Tokugawa shogun, the Tōshōgu, from 1616 is shown next to the new zoological garden, an institution opened in 1882, eight years prior to the publication of this book. This book was sold wrapped in the decorated envelope shown here; these covers, like so many dust jackets today, were often lost or tossed.

Julie Nelson Davis