Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1881
An album of 18 urushi-e paintings in an album bound in orihon (concertina) style, the cover of silk brocade with woven with roundels depicting fabulous beasts and birds, the two endpapers painted in urushi-e with chidori, bamboo grass, and waves on a gold-splashed background, the paintings as follows:

1) A branch of plum against a red sky, painted on a fan leaf

2) The famous two rocks at Futamigaura, a place visited by Zeshin in 1875 and frequently painted by him thereafter (see Earle 1996, p. 46, Gōke 1981, p. 187, reproducing a sketch of the rocks, and Shioda 1908, unpaginated, a painting of the same subject)

3) A waterfall, pine, and sheer cliff; for another example of this subject, one of Zeshin's urushi-e album favourites, see for example Gōke 1981, pl. no. 176, in an album dated to 1882.

4) Clams and seaweed

5) A collection of curious rocks

6) A ferocious tiger pursuing fleeing its long-tailed prey over the edge of a precipice; for a similar treatment of this subject compare Yasumura 2009, cat. no. J-21.1, an album leaf also dated to 1881.

7) An anchor and sea gulls by the shore; for another depiction of an anchor in a lacquer album painting see Earle 1996, cat. no. 76.15

8) Bullrushes, rocks, and a water-fowl

9) Sailing boats by a pine-clad hill

10) An enju (pagoda tree, Styphnolobium japonicum) and bird

11) A bear and two sawagani (freshwater crabs, Geothelphusa dehaani)

12) A herdboy and ox

13) Grapes hanging from a branch of vine

14) A large carp and two smaller carp swimming by weeds

15) A bird sitting on a bamboo water conduit from which water splashes onto a rock

16) A mouse peeping out from a hole in a damaged plaster wall

17) A kakashi (scarecrow) in the form of an archer in a field of rice with five dragonflies, two of them resting on the arrow

18) Mount Fuji with two pines

The first painting signed Gyōnen shichijūgo-sō Zeshin 行年七十五叟　是真 (Zeshin, aged 75) with seal Shin 真; the other paintings each signed Zeshin 是真 and variously sealed Shin 真, Zeshin 是真, Ze 是, Koma 古満, etc.

The cover inscribed in black lacquer on a gold-paper slip Urushi-e chō 漆画帳 (Album of urushi-e)

Overall: 10.6 × 13.2 × 2 cm (4 1/8 × 5¼ × ¾ in.)
Each painting: 8.6 × 11 cm (3 3/8 × 4 3/8 in.)

Fitted wood storage box (2)

Provenance
Sotheby's London, 9 May 1973, lot no. 202
Christie's New York, 29 March 2005, lot no. 239

Exhibited and Published
Nezu Bijutsukan 2012, cat. no. 113