The Shurinzu (Illustrated Guide to Fishes and Aquatic Animals), produced under the instructions of MATSUDAIRA Yoriyasu, the fifth lord of the Takamatsu Domain in the Edo period (1603-1868) is Japan's oldest full-scale illustrated compendium of fish species. The book contains 723 vivid and minutely detailed drawings of fish and other aquatic creatures in four volumes. In this image, the drawn-in fish scales are adorned with gold and silver leaf which add luster, and the surface is colored with layers of paper to create a three-dimensional effect.
Archives of the Matsudaira Takamatsu Family (Kagawa Prefectural Museum)

Natural history illustrated by the most important ichthyologist of the 18th century, the German Marcus Élieser Bloch (1723-99). It contains approximately 200 illustrations of fish from around the world that were known at the time. The illustrations, which precisely depicted only the fish without backgrounds, rather than the traditional images of fish lying on the ground, became the standard used for illustrations of fish.

Art Forms in Nature is a collection of biological drawings produced by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919). Its 10 volumes contain 100 drawings, most of which were drawn for the series. The book as published was based on Haeckel's sketches and preliminary drawings which were then made into prints. A melding of natural history and fine art, the collection's curvilinear forms are said to have greatly influenced the "Art Nouveau" art movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Boxfishes are illustrated here.

Fauna Japonica is based on the vast number of animal specimens collected by the German physician and naturalist Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866) during his sojourn in Nagasaki. The collection's illustrations are based on preliminary drawings that were made by Japanese artists. Fauna Japonica was compiled by researchers at the museum in Leiden in the Netherlands, and its 43 volumes were published over a 17-year period. 16 volumes in the series are devoted to fish. Fauna Japonica is the first publication of its kind to describe Japanese animals in a Western language, widely introduced to western Europe.
Archives: Kyoto University, Graduate School of Science, Biological Sciences Library

Tomisaburo Awajiya Glover (1870-1945), the second son of Scottish trader Thomas Blake Glover, compiled the Fishes of Southern Western Japan describing fish species in the waters around Nagasaki, known as the Glover Zufu (Glover Atlas), over a period of about 25 years from the late Meiji era (1868-1912) to the early Showa era (1926-1989). Glover had five local artists draw approximately 600 species of fish on sale at the fish market in Nagasaki. The book consists of 32 volumes and 806 colorful illustrations.
Nagasaki University Library Collections

The Nippon gyokai zufu (Atlas of Fish and Shellfish in Japan) was compiled by Japanese zoologist TAGO Katsuya based on the fish drawings of ITO Kumataro, a natural history illustrator. Ito, active from the Meiji era to the Showa era, contributed to the development of ichthyology by drawing many exquisitely detailed fish paintings for books and scientific literature at a time when photographic technology was still in its infancy. Many of his fish drawings are preserved in the Smithsonian Institution.

This three series of prints depict various methods of net fishing at the end of the Edo era, such as seine netting, purse seining, and gochi netting.

A collection of ten pictures of famous places featuring fishing in various regions of Japan. This particular image shows a fishing boat navigating the notoriously treacherous waters off Choshi in modern-day Chiba Prefecture.
Collection of the Chiba City Museum of Art

This image depicts fishing on the Goto Islands in Nagasaki Prefecture, where fish are surrounded by dozens of boats and harpooned.