Implications of the Many Versions of the Early Printings of Kaishien gaden, the Mustard Seed Garden Painting Manual

Kaishien gaden was a widely read and influential pair of Japanese books based on the famous Chinese painting manual, Jieziyuan huazhuan. They are among the earliest examples of Japanese color printing. Close examination of many almost identical copies of Series A (1748) and Series B (1753) offers insight into the publishing practices of four different sets of publishers. Even with exemplars printed by the same publisher, there was much variation in the use of seals and color palettes, leading to many different states of each book. Assuming that each print run would be identical in not only the pages printed from the blocks, but also in the use of seals and colors, it can be estimated that there were roughly fifty to eighty print runs of each of these books over their 65–70 year initial history.