Published prior to the Japanese edition ‘Kohon Nihon Teikoku Bijyutsu Ryakushi’, this is the very first official history of Japanese art compiled in Japan. The project to publish this official history was initially planned by the Japanese Ministry and the Imperial Museum in Tokyo, and Tenshin Okakura was appointed as the head of the Board. Despite the resignation of Okakura, Tadamasa Hayashi, the head of the Imperial Commission of Japan for the Universal Exposition of Paris 1900, took over the project and completed it for the opening of the Paris Exposition in 1900. The edition which was released in the following year became the most authoritative text of Japanese art and was reprinted many times in Japan.
This is the very first reprint of the original French 1900 edition (Maurice de Brunoff, Paris) with numerous illustrations (some in colour).