Imperial Star

an original chapbook with illustrations from ukiyo-e

thirty-eight pages plus cover

The images which illustrate this story are details from classic ukiyo-e art. The ukiyo-e ("pictures of the floating world") genre of art flourished in Japan from the 17th through 19th centuries. Ukiyo-e artists produced woodblock prints and paintings depicting samurai, beautiful courtesans, kabuki actors, sumo wrestlers, history, folk tales, travel in romantic landscapes, flora, fauna and erotica. The Floating World, as the pleasure districts of Edo (modern day Tokyo) were called, describes the sensory pleasures of urban life, but also offers a bittersweet reminder of the fleeting nature of all worldly delights. Some of the greatest Japanese artists of the time—Ando Hiroshige, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Toyokuni III, and Keisai Eisen among them—became known primarily as woodblock print designers in the ukiyo-e style. Their work had a profound impact on European artists around this time—its flattened perspective and innovative compositions inspired artists such as Mary Cassatt, Vincent Van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, as well as the Japonisme movement in art and design.

binding is in red, stitched by hand

a horror story about time, guilt and the distortions of memory

from The Realms of the Ravenous Night Series — the Emptiness of Infinite Space Encompasses All

three quotations might explain …

You don't remember what happened. What you remember becomes what happened.
— John Green

The beginning of love is a horror of emptiness.
— Robert Bly

It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.
— Lewis Carroll

shipped with care

an inexpensive gift for the friend who enjoys horror and Japanese culture

every copy comes with an extra art surprise

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