Notebook Japanese Fireworks

These twelve images are taken from an advertising catalogue for Hirayama fireworks, published around 1890 by C. T. Brock & Co., the oldest pyrotechnics manufacturer in Britain, founded in 1698. Fireworks, invented in China around the 2nd century BCE and appearing in Japan around 1600 under the name hanabi (“flowers of fire”), developed and flourished in the 19th century in Edo (renamed Tōkyō in 1868). Hirayama Jinta expanded the traditional orange cascading fireworks with a full range of original patterns and vibrant colors. These simplified illustrations give them a striking graphic quality.
12 p, ills colour, 11 x 15 cm, postcard, French/English