“Theatre of Love” brings together a specially curated selection from the Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts. The portfolio reveals the traditions, rituals and cultures of the courtesans and pleasure workers within the famous ‘Yukaku’ (pleasure districts) of Edo’s Yoshiwara and Kyoto’s Shimabara in 19th century Japan. These designated pleasure districts played a major role in the conservative Edo society, as it was a place where samurai, wealthy merchants and commoners could meet with the working women. Seen through the eyes of photographers who both lived and travelled to Japan during the 19th century, the selection of images reintroduces these unique and invaluable prints in collotype.

The immersive limited edition of 2 hand-colored and 18 black and white prints is housed in a purple clothbound cover and includes an introduction by Jerome Ghesquiere, head of photography collections at the Guimet.

About Benrido Collotype Atelier:
Benrido was established in 1887 as a small rental bookshop which evolved into a well established fine-art photography department, printing and publishing company.
In the 1880s, the collotype printing process was introduced to Kyoto and by 1905 Benrido had begun producing collotypes. Collotype is one of the earliest forms of printing techniques and was invented in France in 1855 by Alphonse Poitevin as a method for photographic fine art printing. Due to the high level of print and archival quality, it has since been used primarily as a way to reproduce and preserve Japan’s National Treasures and cultural properties. Today Benrido Collotype Atelier remains as one of only a few studios left in the world capable of producing fine colour collotype prints.

由法國吉美國家亞洲藝術博物館特別策劃，精選而成的柯羅版作品集《愛》(Theatre of Love)，展示出 19 世紀日本江戶吉原和京都島著名的「遊樂區」，當中妓女和遊樂工作者的傳統、儀式和文化。 作為武士、富商和平民與職業婦女會面的地方，這些遊樂區在當時保守的江戶社會中發揮著極為重要的作用。 通過攝影師們 於 19 世紀在日本生活和旅行的記錄，加上引入了博物館的精挑細選，造就出這本獨特且極具珍藏價值的柯羅版限量作品集。

關於京都便利堂：

便利堂 成立於 1887 年，最初是一家小型出租書店，後來發展成為一家美術攝影部門、印刷和出版公司。1880 年代，珂羅版印刷工藝被引入京都，到 1905 年，便利堂 開始生產珂羅版印刷。珂羅版是最早期的攝影美術印刷技術形式之一，於 1855 年由 Alphonse Poitevin 在法國發明，其印刷和成品質量非常高，此後主要用作複製和保存日本國寶和文化財產的一種印刷方式。至今，京都便利堂 仍然是世界上為數不多能夠製作精美彩色珂羅版印刷品的工作室之一。