Interest in objects from East Asia has been prevalent at the V&A since its establishment in 1852. Seen as a vital design resource, the arts of Japan became an area of particular interest for the museum with the support of its second Director, Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen. This included the acquisition of woodblock printed materials during his tenure (from 1873 – 93), notably a large single purchase from the London-based dealer S.M. Franck of more than 12,000 Japanese ukiyo-e prints which included over 400 illustrated books (ehon). To date, the extensive collection of ukiyo-e prints at the V&A (numbering over 25,000), have been studied through publications and exhibitions, however the illustrated book collection has been generally overlooked. Comprised of a combination of purchases and bequests over 1700 volumes (approximately 500 different titles), the collection was originally part of the National Art Library before it was moved to the Asia Department. Although a selection of the book collection was previously catalogued , there is no comprehensive resource available that explores it fully.
An ongoing research and digitisation collaboration between the V&A’s Asia Department, the Art Research Center at Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, and the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures, Norwich, means the illustrated book collection is now being photographed and catalogued in Japanese. Despite these important efforts, which included a customised photography set-up to accommodate the stitched bindings of the books, the fact that the information was produced in Japanese meant it could not be simply uploaded onto the V&A’s database. For 12 months, between December 2023 and April 2025, I have been based twice a week in the Asia Department, translating the cataloguing information into English, making the records bilingual, and uploading the images to the V&A’s Explore the Collections database. The project is a Northern Bridge Consortium (NBC) Doctoral Training Partnership placement, undertaken in conjunction with my PhD at Northumbria University, where my research focuses on the interaction of British industrial designer Christopher Dresser (1834 – 1904) and Meiji Japan as a conduit to explore transnational design and perceived nationalized aesthetics. The bulk of the V&A’s book collection had been formed by the early 20th century and consequently reflects collecting practices during the formative years of the museum’s history. It can thusly be utilized to re-evaluate Victorian design aesthetics and the concept of ‘Japonisme’ in 19th century Britain. A prominent example of this is the group of approximately 400 books donated to the museum in 1916 by the daughters of William Cleverly Alexander (1840 – 1916), the British industrialist and leading patron of James McNeill Whistler (1834 – 1903).
While other institutions also hold Japanese books in their collections, the V&A acquired volumes for their usefulness as design reference tools, in keeping with the founding principles of the museum. Due to lack of familiarity with Japanese palaeography, the books were mostly acquired for their visual rather than narrative contents and as such are an eclectically interesting mix. Ranging from the 17th century to the 20th century, the collection reveals the variety of books available during the Edo period (1615 – 1868). High literacy levels in Japan, including among women, led to the commercial viability and accessibility of reading materials and the formation of lending libraries. Some books in the V&A collection bear the names of these enterprises. The popularity of reading materials created a successful publication industry that was a collaboration between artists, woodblock cutters and printers under the auspices of a publisher. Many of these publishers are represented in the collection and announcements of upcoming titles they were promoting can be found in the front or back matter of many volumes, illustrating the vibrant book trade.
The V&A collection also focuses on books that lend themselves to the classification of different aspects of Japan’s culture and natural phenomena. The most prevalent genres represented in the collection are illustrated encyclopaedias, design handbooks, catalogues of historic objects and places, painting manuals (of which the majority are bird and plant studies) and artist books.
Although in no way comprehensive, here are five of my favourite digitised examples selected from these predominant genres.
Books such as this illustrated encyclopaedia from the late 17th century display the prevalence of early black and white imagery and Japanese cataloguing of the natural world.
While this later volume on poisonous plants reflects the evolving methods of classification that were instituted to align with Western models of scientific understanding.
The many volumes of bird and flower paintings in the collection reflect the Victorian enthusiasm for the subject, this volume is a particularly beautiful example, the images being very lively and deftly coloured.
Although pattern and design books for many different art industries are represented in the collection, perhaps the most engaging are the kimono pattern books (hinagatabon), including this example which features sumptuous additional embossing to represent the pattern of the silk damask ground of the design. The external digitisation team took special care in photographing this page of the book, using both overhead and raked light to highlight the impressions on the paper and give a true representation of the distinct characteristics of the volume.
There were also amusing discoveries during the cataloguing process, including a series on famous horses, with the distinct equine subjects placed in famously historic tableaus.
The books illustrated here barely brush the surface of what is now available on the V&A database. To date, over 540 records have been digitised, catalogued, and made available on Explore the Collections with bilingual Japanese and English titles. As the project is ongoing, it is exciting to anticipate what other interesting volumes are yet to be revealed.
Find out more information on the book digitisation process
For more information on PhD Placement projects for academic year 2025 – 26, please check the V&A’s careers pages from May onwards.
