Hundreds Of Japanese Fireworks Illustrations From The 19th Century Are Now Available For Download

Fireworks are beautiful to look at, but the moment can seem fleeting because of their temporary nature. That is what makes this newly digitized catalog of fireworks illustrations from Jinta Hirayama so mesmerizing. Fireworks are frozen in time to be enjoyed again and again. And the best part? They are available to download for free.

Jinta Hirayama brings vibrant colors to Japanese fireworks at a time when muted orange hues were the dominant color palette. It is every bit a mixture of science and surrealism. Hirayama was so invested in the world of fireworks that he is credited as the very first Japanese person to ever register a patent in America. The late 1800s changed Japanese fireworks forever.

Hirayama founded his own fireworks company in Yokohama, Japan in 1877. He produced bilingual (Japanese-American) catalogs to display his wares and ultimately moved products internationally. The Yokohama Library has now made the illustrations available online for the first time here. (For those who do not read Japanese, scroll down and click on any of the books titles written in English. On the next page, click on “本体PDF画像” to download the file as a PDF.)

Scroll down to see the combination of colors and forms:

h/t: Spoon & Tamago