p2
Paper. Toyosha? 新発明 軽便紙 [Shin Hatsumei Keibenshi]. n.p. [Osaka?] [188-?]. 75x28cm woodcut with added colours. Piece from the top margin well away from the printing, a repaired tear; Quite good for a cheap, vulnerable bit of production. Au$150
I believe this to be an announcement for a new invention of a lightweight paper. I hope not the paper this is printed on which seems heavy and coarse to me. Probably not considering the easy grasp of our newspaper addict. I suspect the cigarettes will stay on that side of his mouth until his left eye looks as sore as the right does now. Then he will switch back.
VERNE, Jules and Inoue Tsutomu. 学術妙用 : 造物者驚愕試験 [Gakujutsu myoyo : Zobutsusha kyogaku shiken]. Tokyo, Kochisha 1887 (Meiji 20). 18x12cm, publisher's cloth backed colour illustrated boards; [6],142pp, four litho plates. A touch of surface nibbling to the front edge of the front cover, some natural browning of the paper; an outstanding, obviously unread copy. Au$850
First edition. A translation from Dr. Ox's Experiment - the English version of Fantaisie du Docteur Ox. Inoue was a busy translator with a specialty in Jules Verne and I wonder how he handled Verne's extended mockery of the Flemish. Not that the Japanese haven't mastered regional insult, but how aware was he that this is pretty much the whole novel? Did he give his characters a Kansai accent?
Jonathan Swift & Katayama Heisaburo. 鵞瓈皤児回島記 [Garibarusu Shimameguri]. Tokyo, Inada Sahei 1887 (Meiji 20). 19x13cm publisher's cloth backed illustrated boards; seven lithograph plates. A dash of each of the many flaws these flimsy books are liable to: some insect nibbling of the spine and back cover, browning of the paper, a few leaves a bit proud of the front edge (not a sprung signature since these books don't have signatures). The inner front hinge was taped at some time but it's not clear why: it hasn't separated. Not a great copy but by no means a bad copy, not even an average copy of one of these board books. Au$750
Second edition of the first translation of Gulliver's Travels, or the important bit of it. These adventures in Lilliput appeared in a Japanese version in 1880 with the vague promise of the next part. The second, the Brobdingnagian, came from a different translater in 1887, some six or seven months after this second edition of the first book. I don't think anything like a complete Gulliver appeared for a fair while after that, so the Japanese audience had to wait decades to read about Gulliver's trip to Japan. The illustrations here are copied from Thomas Morten's which first appeared in a Cassell edition in 1866.
Yoko Inagi's 2014 well meaning if over egged thesis (The Evolution of Japanese Utopianism and How Akutagawa’s Dystopian Novella, Kappa ...) makes the point that Gulliver's Travels along with More's Utopia began life in Japan as political novels rather than fantastic adventures or satires. Gulliver followed much the same arc in Japan as it had in the west and by the 1920s was a children's book.
This is a 'ball cover' (boru hyoshi, apparently a corruption of 'board') book - a signal of modernity and the Japanese equivalent of a yellowback: flimsy western style bindings with lithograph covers that rarely survive in such good shape.
I traced no copies of either edition of this outside Japan.
Second edition of the first book, first edition of the second. Gulliver's Travels, or the important bits of it. The adventures in Lilliput appeared in a Japanese version in 1880 with the vague promise of the next part. The second, the Brobdingnagian, came from a different translater in 1887, some six or seven months after the second edition of the first book. I don't think anything like a complete Gulliver appeared for a fair while after that, so the Japanese audience had to wait to read about Gulliver's trip to Japan. Which is usually a good thing. What Australian wants to watch the Simpson's Australian episode?
The illustrations to the Lilliputian adventures are copied from Thomas Morten's which first appeared in a Cassell edition in 1866 but though Morten provided heaps of models the Brobdingnagian illustrator went elsewhere. Where I'm not sure. I'd say the continent but I'm pretty sure these are not Grandville's, nor Gavarni's, nor Poirson's. The Japanese artist/lithographer is pretty good though.
Koon-ki Ho's 1991 essay on the utopian tradition in Japan (Japanese in Search of Happiness) suggests that Swift's "portrayal of the moral Brobdingnagians was influenced by the reports of China and Chinese available." and Yoko Inagi's 2014 well meaning if over egged thesis (The Evolution of Japanese Utopianism and How Akutagawa’s Dystopian Novella, Kappa ...) makes the point that Gulliver's Travels along with More's Utopia began life in Japan as political novels rather than fantastic adventures or satires. Gulliver followed much the same arc in Japan as it had in the west and by the 1920s was a children's book.
I traced no copies of either edition of the first part outside Japan and one copy of the second part: UC Berkeley.
Chiarini's Circus. Chiarini's Circus and Menagerie. Complete Congress of Wonders and Marvels. n.p. 1887 (Meiji 20). Lithograph(?) kawaraban style poster or handbill 27x35cm. Rather good. I find it hard to tell the difference between a woodcut and lithograph when they are unevenly inked and printed. Au$550
Chiarini's circus spent months in Japan in 1886 and 1887 and the Emperor saw his first circus. And being true royalty he was generous in his appreciation, not like a certain modern bunch who will reward with a handshake and have their accountant bill the nation for new gloves. Chiarini's was the circus for much of India, south east and east Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Latin and South America. They were indefatigable travellers.
I gather it was the scale of the spectacle, the horse riders and the animals that enraptured the Japanese; they already had plenty of great acrobats. I read somewhere that the first Japanese given official permission to leave the country were acrobats snapped up by the canny Richard Risley whose circus had been allowed into Japan in 1864 but no further than Yokohama. In this poster the stars are hard at work and are identified.
Baitei Kinga. 演説振 : 即席品物 [Enzetsuburi : Sokuseki Shinamono]. Tokyo, Man'yukai 1888 (Meiji 21). 18x13cm publisher's colour illustrated lithographed cloth backed boards; one double page illustration, smaller illustrations through the text. Natural browning of the cheap paper. An excellent copy. Au$150
Yes, I bought this for the cover and condition without any idea of what it's about. Still don't but I think it's maybe a humourous book about speechification and spruiking.
From what I can figure out Baitei Kinga never took enough time from writing to have a life.
Yanagisawa Bunzo &c. 怪談累物語 [Kaidan Kasane Monogatari]. Osaka, Konomura Shosuke 1889 (Meiji 22). 18x13cm publisher's colour lithograph boards with cloth spine; [4],56,[2]pp on double folded leaves, one double page and four single page illustrations. Mild browning, a pleasing fresh copy. Au$500
First edition of this version of the Kasane ghost story, a story that bulges with murder, greed, curses, possession and guilt. Supposedly based on a true story the saintly monk Yuten stars as the exorcist, and was the inspiration for prints, books, rakugo, kabuki and film.
The double leaves seemed a bit extravagant for a book like this but all the paper is re-used from some other job with printing on the other side. This is a 'ball cover' (boru hyoshi, apparently a corruption of 'board') book - a signal of modernity and the Japanese equivalent of a yellowback: flimsy western style bindings with lithograph covers that rarely survive in such good shape. Worldcat finds only the NDL entry and a search of CiNii found no more.
Akita Yazaemon. 新撰大工雛形 - 西洋技術 [Shinsen Daiku Hinagata - Seiyo Gijutsu] Tokyo, Togaido 1889 (Meiji 22). 26x18cm publisher's wrapper with title label; lithograph(?) illustrations throughout, a couple with rubrics. A bit used but pretty good. Au$250
An unusual carpenter/builder's pattern book - for both the size and clarity of the drawings - of western gates, fences, masonry arches, roof trussing, gable and finial, and staircases. The subtitle translates more or less as 'western technology'.
Hikifuda. Hikifuda with lucky gods Ebisu and Daikokuten on the telephone. n.p. [Osaka? 189-?] Colour woodcut 26x38cm. A crooked fold and a few small marks; quite good and bright. Au$300
Ebisu and Daikokuten did embrace modernity - or rather, wanted to play with every new gadget and fashion - so naturally they would want to play on the telephone. Surely they had plenty of spirit messengers among their retinues. Apparently public telephones only became available in 1890, until then they were reserved for the government, police and select companies.
I can't read the centre panel which tells us who was selling what and I don't understand the signifance of 753 which is the number in both telephone booths and the banner on the right. Something to do with Shichi-Go-San? November 15? Sorry.
But there would be no point to this hikifuda unless it was timely, that telephones were brand new, in the same way that this pair were pioneer joyriders in a motor car and donned military uniforms during the Russo-Japanese war.
Hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.
Yokohama. Handcoloured photo panorama of Yokahama. np c1890? Two albumen prints joined, 20x50cm, folded and mounted on an album leaf. Excellent clear prints with subtle colouring. Au$600
Yokohama became the western capital of Japan - westerners in Nagasaki were confined in numbers and location - and the Bluff - now Yamate - where the diplomats and wealthy built their mansions was the obvious spot for making a panorama of Yokohama. A gathering - small as it is - of them from the 19th and early 20th centuries might be a useful guide to the growth of the city: they are taken from spots very close to each other. Of course it was a city that ceased to exist in 1923.
Henry James Black. (Burakku Kairakutei). Du Boisgobey, Fortune. 車中の毒針 : 探偵小說 [Shachu no dokubari : Tantei shosetsu]. Tokyo, Okawa 1891 (Meiji 24). 220x145mm, without original wrapper in a later but old light card wrapper lettered by hand; 190,[4 advert]pp; 11 double page illustrations. Brushed inscription over the colophon page, certainly read, natural browning of the paper but a respectable enough and solid copy. Au$900
A detective story told as a serial to an audience by a gay Australian who became a professional Japanese story teller and actor, taken down in shorthand and published as this book.
Black was born in Adelaide and arrived in Japan in 1865 at the age of almost seven - his father, up until now a singer, had bought into the Japan Herald. Henry seems to have grown into something of a no-hoper in the eyes of some of his family at least and rather than settle to respectable work became first a proponent of progressive reform, like his father, then a professional rakugoka - story teller - and even a kabuki actor playing women. His reaction to his siblings' disapproval was to change his name to Burakku Kairakutei (Pleasure Black), marry a Japanese woman and become a Japanese citizen.
Ian McArthur, Black's biographer, quotes from a police report made at this time that he was living in "virtually a husband and wife relationship" with a young Japanese man but otherwise there was nothing untoward to worry about. At the height of his fame - 1891 and 92 - maybe six or seven of these stenographic novels were published and other stories appeared in newspapers. It's a bit hard to unravel as a couple appeared more than once with different titles. Even the concise and acerbic Edogawa Rampo gets muddled and misled trying to work out a bibliography at the end of his 1951 essay translated as 'Fingerprint Novels of the Meiji Era'. He cites another essayist who wrote on Black and said he had five of his books, Rampo had only three.
This handful of detective stories or thrillers was bracketed by two translations or adaptations of novels: Mrs Braddon's Flower and Weed in 1886 and Dickens' Oliver Twist in 1895. Of the thrillers from these two boom years, two are known to be adapted from stories by Mrs Braddon and one - this one - from a story by Fortune du Boisgobey. Boisgobey's 'Crime de l'Omnibus' appeared in 1881 but Black was much more likely to work from a cheap English translation published in New York in 1882 or by Vizetelly in 1885 - titled 'The Mystery of an Omnibus' and 'An Omnibus Mystery' respectively. I like Black's title better which translates more or less as The Poisoned Needle in the Coach.
These stenographic books - sokkibon - were hugely popular, distributed largely through lending libraries and have a pitiful survival rate. They are credited with playing a large part in transforming Japanese literature from the classical and formal to colloquial.
This is not the board cover edition, it is printed from what looks to be the same setting on larger, coarser paper with added running titles and was undoubtedly issued in wrappers. The colophon says that it was reprinted on the same day (October 19) as the original which could, I guess, be true. Worldcat, when nudged, finds two entries - both the board edition - the NDL in Japan and the NLA in Australia.
Hikifuda. 山石原 ... [Yamaishihara ...] Osaka 1891 (Meiji 24). Colour woodcut 38x26cm. Two horizontal folds, a nice copy. Au$100
An example of a somewhat western aesthetic style (ie inspired by Japan) applied to the authoritive detail of a currency note or share certificate. In other words, here is a company or product to be trusted. Absolutely.
Hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.
Yamaishihara is an area south west of Osaka and the timetable is for 1892. The rest is up to you.
Kyokaen Shujin (?) 女海賊龍神於虎 [On'na Kaizoku Ryujin Otora] Takahashi Yutaro 1894 (Meiji 27). Two parts 24x17cm; each 8pp plus a colour woodcut cover; a full page illustration in the first part. Au$300
This short bloodstained thriller about this glorious woman pirate forms two issues of the obscure magazine, Nisshin Kan Mikunishi. Forget finding a record of this tale, first find a record of the magazine; I found mention of a single issue in the Tokyo Keizai University library.
I hope the woman on the second cover is not our pirate but I fear it is. I need someone to read it to me before I can tell you.
War artists; Sino-Japanese war. Mizuno Toshikata. 大日本帝国萬々歳 : 成歓襲撃和軍大捷之図 [Dainipponteikoku banbanzai : Seikan Shugeki Wa-gun Taisho Nozu?]. Akiyama Buemon 1894 Woodcut triptych 33x70cm, the three sheets joined and laid down. A bit marked and grubby. Au$200
This is the first time, as far as I know, that war artists and journalists became stars of senso-e: war prints. I can't read the names of the two artists portrayed here but of course the best war artists never went near a war. I found no suggestion that Toshikata ever left his studio.
Kuroda Masanori. 陶磁器意匠標本 [Tojiki Isho Hyohon]. Dainippon Ceramic Industry Association, 1895 (Meiji 28). 24x17cm publisher's decorated wrapper (a bit marked); 30 woodcut (and lithograph?) plates on 15 double leaves, 12 colour, the rest printed in black or blue. Rather good. Au$600
A scarce and intriguing pattern book of mostly fancy ceramics - what I'd call export stuff - issued by the industry association with enough plates detailing both form and decoration to be most useful. So who is for? A guide for the trade or for the customer? Maybe both. Given that two of the three copies I've traced were pretty revolting I'd guess trade.
Worldcat finds no copies outside Japan.
Tobacco poster. Old Gold Cut Plug. Rochester NY, Wm S. Kimball & Co (c1900?). Chromolithograph poster 55x36cm with metal strips at top and bottom with hanging loop at the top. A crease, a surface blemish to the left hand side, some small tears and scratches; not perfect but still pretty good. With a smaller Kimball chromolithograph card 28x16cm of a more modest but still morally questionable young woman (c1890?). Au$800
A masterpiece of the offensive - so much packed into a couple of square feet of ink and paper. I haven't been so impressed by the economy in insult to at least three quarters of the world since I got a set of Zulu Lulu swizzle sticks (beware of recent imitations, by the way).
American drawn (signed Van) and American printed (by the Stecher Lithographic Co. of Rochester) but this was a Japanese shop poster. A fair amount of Kimball trade card beauties float around and a series of darker skinned 'natives' but I can't find anything remotely like this. Was it judged too ripe for an American audience and shipped off to tantalise and amuse Japanese smokers?
The accompanying card is too large to be a trade card for customers and was presumably for shop display.
Communications - Japan. Post. A handmade (draft? mock up?) picture book or sketches for paintings on telecommunication and post in Meiji Japan; with "Post" scrolled across what passes for the title page. n.p. c1900 to 1906. 21x29cm patterned wrapper; 27 full page ink drawings (18 coloured) and three pages of text, mostly on translucent drawing paper, mounted on 15 double leaves. Album paper and some drawings spotted. The figure on the title was cut from a drawing of women operators near the end; a figure in another drawing has been redrawn and overlaid on the original; captions sometimes in ink, sometimes in pencil and sometimes not there; drawings of the telegram boys and the women operators exist as ink and as coloured drawings; all signs of work in progress Au$3000
Something of a marvel and mystery. Two of the drawings are signed Asahi but I find no other clue to who made this and why: was it a commission by the Ministry of Communications for a picture book? an exhibition? for a publisher? Our artist has been given access to the inner workings of the service so this is not the fancy of an idle amateur. Tejima Asahi (or Kyokko depending on the reading) has been suggested as the artist but since I can find nothing more than his date of birth it doesn't help me much. And I'm not sure it matters much.
Shibata Shinsai produced a similar series of paintings drawn from life showing the workings of the post office in 1884 that were exhibited at the New Orleans World Fair. Now, here, we have new uniforms, bicycles, telegrams and telephones to celebrate. Which makes the date more definite than the artist: bicycles for telegram boys were introduced in 1892 and in 1906 red was gazetted as their official colour; public telephone boxes appeared in 1900.
I don't believe a finished book or an exhibition of finished paintings from our album appeared. Shibata's paintings are a singular treasure of the Postal Museum, reproduced on the covers of their journal, where a lot of time and effort has gone into the study of their collection of paintings, prints and advertisements that show anything of the postal service. I was struck by just how ubiquitous telegram boys, postmen and parcel deliverers are in scenes of busy Meiji life and how many letter boxes and telegraph poles feature in the symbolic frames within frames of popular prints. It's unthinkable that anything like this album would be ignored and nothing else like this seem to exist.
The drawings are variable in finish and finesse - until we come to the young women telephone operators where the lines are fluid and confident. Was it because our artist had still models to capture? because he had more time? or because he enjoyed drawing women much more than men?
I read somewhere that women did not work nightshifts on the switchboards until complaints about the rudeness and unhelpfulness of male operators saw them banished altogether.
Tricycle advertisement. Advertising leaflet for a new American children's bicycle. Osaka? c1900. 19x33cm, printed in blue on brown paper. Rumpled, chipped and sometime laid down. Au$60
As always, if someone complains about the condition my reply is, "Go find a better copy." And it is called a bicycle (jitensha) rather than tricycle (sanrinsha). Agents in other cities are named but headquarters are in Osaka with the phone number 1837. An expert in Japanese phone numbers might be able to tell us when the number 1837 was reached, giving us the earliest possible date for this.
Hikifuda 各國大醫之有効保証樂 : 百毒下し : 和順湯 [Kakukoku dai i no yuko hoshoraku? Hyakudokukudashi : Wajanyu]. c1900? 40x50cm colour woodcut. Au$150
A singular and baffling, to me, handbill or hikifuda for a patent medicine for women that expelled a hundred poisons and cured ailments that any woman was likely to suffer.
It's the character in the corner that stumps me. Since I can't read the text I have no idea who he is nor what he is doing. My first guess is that he is threatening to tie the young woman to the railroad tracks but I'm sure this predates any American film serials that could have arrived in Japan. So is he a traditional stage villain or does he do something else in Japan? Surely he isn't one of the many great foreign doctors who guarantee Wajanyu or Heshun Tang, which seems to be a traditional Chinese medicine. But ... he is ordering her and us to pay attention.
According to Ernest Clement, in a 1907 article on medical folk-lore in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, in 1896, in Tokyo alone, there were 1401 registered inventors of patent medicines, 5145 vendors, 42,533 quack doctors and 5137 qualified medicos.
Specimen hikifuda. Hikifuda of a modern couple in an elaborate cockerell balloon basket above an exposition or fair; the brash young woman waving a Japanese flag. n.p. [190-?]. 36x25cm colour lithograph. Browning but pretty good. Au$300
Such overtly enthusiastic and active women are not so common in Japanese pictures. The navy ships in the bay make me think this marks one of Japan's victories - the 1904 war with Russia or the 1894 win against China. The fashions push the date back but Hikifuda artists didn't always worry about such details unless the target was fashion.
Hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.
Hikifuda specimen book. A publisher's sample book of specimen hikifuda. n.p. (Osaka?) 190-? 26x39cm; later makeshift card binding that appears to be from a printer; 76 colour lithographs. Definite signs of use, occasional tears but nothing too serious. Au$2750
These are rare. Specimen hikifuda do float around but this is because busy fingers have dismembered every sample book they can find. Here series and numbers are stamped on the back but are not consistent; still I found only three places where offsetting shows that a sample is missing, including the first plate.
Hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.
From what I can see, if you wanted fine, delicate printing you went to Kyoto; if you wanted commercial publishing on a huge scale you went to Tokyo; and if you wanted brash, vivid to the point of lurid, advertising you went to Osaka. This particular set is marked by the bold and busy colours, strongly marked borders, ornate design and occasional extra embossing. More expensive series than standard? I would have guessed most to be earlier but I found two dates: 1911 and 1915, and the aeroplanes are a give away.
