This rare set of thirty prints is a travel book that depicts the beautiful sceneries and genres in Osaka and Kobe area (Hanshin). A map of antique Japanese is attached to identify the featured places. This album, being published in 1917, is one of the earliest example of Shin-hanga landscape. The publisher Kanao Tanejiro (Bunendo) ambitiously congregated five artists, who were all at the time illustrators of the Osaka newspaper Asahi Shinbun. Each artist contributed six designs to the album. The complete set is extremely rare today.
Complete impressions could be found in some Japanese and international museums’ collections, including the British Museum (https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=778238&partId=1&searchText=noda+kyuho&page=1) and Smithsonian Institution (https://pulverer.si.edu/node/686/title/1). The album is also widely discussed in literatures.