Together with Part 2 (accession number 00017 in the Mokuhankan Collection), this collection follows the history of ukiyo-e in reproduced prints by Takamizawa. The two sets are in rough chronological order and follow different techniques through history, starting with sumizuri-e, moving through tan-e, urushi-e, beni-e, and so on.

This set is the first of the two, but ours is ‘broken’; we're missing #14, and prints #11 and #22 are ‘substitute’ prints from what is described on the index page. Takamizawa must have run out of a couple of the prints in the set, and just put something else in for replacements... Maybe there was a note for the original purchaser, but if so, that has been lost...

While the works of several famous ukiyo-e artists such as Shunshō and Harunobu are featured in the set, many lesser-known prints are also included.

Takamizawa was noted for their attempts to make their prints have the appearance of ‘aged’ prints - furubi, and we can see this characteristic in many of the prints in the two sets.