JAPAN - Edo period (1603-1868), Mid-19th century Accordion album featuring fifty-three polychrome and gold inks on paper depicting Noh theater masks, each accompanied by its name. Each page later numbered. The most important Noh-theater masks are included: Buddha, Sekinojô, Dôji, Kojô, Okina, Manbi, Yase-Onna and others. It is signed Fukuda Muryô, followed by two seals, and dated the 4th year of the Kaei era (1851), at the request of Mr. Matsui Kaguya. At the front of the album is a paper listing all the masks, with transcriptions of each and the corresponding French translation, as well as the transcription and translation of the date and signature on the last page. Cover and spine in beige, gold and purple silk brocade decorated with chrysanthemum and paulownia flowers. (Soiling, small wormholes, wear). Height: 29 cm - Width: 24.5 cm At the end of the album is a printed note relating an invitation to a commemorative party at the Heian Shinto shrine in Kyoto by the Prefect of Kyoto. Watanabe Chiaki on April 28 in the 28th year of Meiji (1895). This invitation was probably placed by its former owner.