OGAWA, K(azumasa).   SOME JAPANESE FLOWERS.         Yokohama, Shanghai, Hongkong and Singapore: Kelly and Walsh,   1897.          Ten superb chromo-collotypes plates of flowers from photographs by Kazumasa Ogawa. Ogawa trained in America but eventually established a photography studio in Tokyo. Throughout his career he made an enormous contribution to Western appreciation of Japanese culture through his photographs. The colophon in Japanese at the back of this book identifies the actual Japanese publication date as 1895 and names Ogawa as the publisher. Latin botanical and Japanese names are given for each flower portrait. These are: Lilium speciosum, varieties; Iris laevigata var. Kaempferi: Paeonia aborea; Wisteria sinensis; Nelumbium speciosum; Rhododendron indicum; Camellia japonica, double-striped; Iris laevigata var. Kaempfeeri; Lilium auratum; Ipomaea hederacea. The images are brilliantly precise and the coloring both subtle and vibrant. This is a beautifully preserved copy.   Folio, stabbed and tied, 40 x 30 cm; (vi) + 10 chromo-collotype plates printed on rectos with printed tissue guards + sheet printed in Japanese.            Original printed and textured paper with printed cloth title label on upper cover; gilt sprinkled endpapers; very small nick towards head of spine, but still a fine copy. $1,000.00

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