Onchi zuroku
The onchi zuroku were a series of volumes of craft designs produced in 1875 to 1881. Including some 2,500 designs in four volumes (incl. 84 books and 11 scrolls), the volumes were produced by Kanô, Rinpa, Maruyama-Shijô school, and other artists in the employ of the seihin gazu gakari (Product Design Sketch Department), a department of the Meiji government tasked with onko chishin (温故知新): drawing on the treasures of Japanese art traditions and infusing them with new ideas.
The production of the books was directly tied to the design of craft pieces for display at World's Fairs, beginning with the 1876 Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia, in the United States.
The four volumes, including designs for ceramics, cloisonné, metalwork, woodwork, lacquerwares, and leather pieces, were published in 1876, 1877, 1878, and 1881.
References
- Jennifer Harris, "'Odd and Bizarre': The Export of Japanese Aesthetics to Nineteenth-Century Australia," in Harris and Tets Kimura (eds.), Exporting Japanese Aesthetics, Brighton: Sussex Academic Press (2020), 45, 57.