Published 1887, Pictorial Descriptions of the Famous Places in Tokyo, Cover belongs to Pictorial Descriptions of the Famous Places in Tokyo. This trilingual Tokyo guide presented the modern capital through notable sites and explanatory text. It helped reconcile the city’s temples, historic places, new institutions, and changing streets within an image legible to international visitors.

This is a paratextual design rather than an independent narrative scene. It establishes the publication’s identity, sequence, and visual tone before the reader reaches the main images or text. The catalog identifies text as the principal motif. Gekkō uses it to clarify action, season, setting, or narrative emphasis rather than as interchangeable decoration.

As a book or album image, the composition was designed to be encountered in sequence and in relation to text, facing pages, and the physical act of turning leaves.

Additional information

Publisher

Kyushundo, Tokyo

Size

Oban

Subjects

text

Year Published

1887

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