1857, original embossed album containing Kunisada II's Murasaki Shikibu's Genji Cards (Murasaki Shikibu Genji Karuta), 54 woodblock prints and title page, each print representing a modern interpretation of chapters from the Japanese literary masterpiece The Tale of Genji written by a noblewoman, Murasaki Shikibu, in the 11th century, each print has a white clamshell with title of the series and the chapter name below, the red clamshell has the chapter number and the Genjimon character for the chapter.

14 x 9.75 in.

Some with fading to color; full margins with losses to edges, especially corners; cover front and back with much wear with losses to surface; the prints are no longer bound to the album covers and are loose; each print has small holes to one side where it was previously bound together with album cover.

$1,500 - 3,000