Kahei Seizu

1879. TOKUNO, Ryosuke. Kahei Seizu. 55 plates. Oblong Folio, 273 x 364 mm., contemporary morocco-backed cloth. [Tokyo] : Okurasho Insatsukyoku, 1879. A splendid example of Japanese chromolithography, this method of printing being presumably thought to be better suited to the reproduction of gold and silver coins than the more traditional Japanese method of wood engraving. Inscribed by the French Consul in Japan, Jules Jouslain to the numismatist Leon Ardouin, containing Ardouin's manuscript translation of the text on the verso of the plates. Binding a little rubbed, otherwise fine.