Kitagawa Utamaro was one of the premier woodblock artists in Japan during the 18th century. This Book of Birds was published at the height of his career in around 1790. This is a reproduction of the series of three books of bird woodblock prints by the artist in the metropolitan museum of art in New York.

The reproduction is presented in a folding format similar to that of old Japanese books or screens. It is a beautiful work of art. The only thing that hasn't been able to be reproduced is the embossing and gold speckles in the paper of the original work, but you can still see where they are in the reproduced pictures. The front of the book gives us an introduction to Utamaro and the back of the book translates the poetry on each page (by the greatest poets of the era) and identifies each of the birds in all the prints.

If you love birds and Japanese art then this a book you should put some effort into finding. It's a rare treat for those lucky enough to have seen this reproduction.