p1
Kurofune kawaraban. Perry and the black ships in Japan. 北亜墨利加合衆国帝王ヨリ献上貢物品々 [with] アメリカヨリ大日本ヘ献上貢物品々 [Kitaamerika Gasshukoku Teio Yori Kenjo Mitsugimono Shinajina] with [Amerika Yori Dainihon e Kenjo Mitsugimono Shinajina]. [np 1854] (Kaei 7). Two woodcuts joined 62x24cm. Rather good. sold
These illicit illustrated news sheets - kawaraban - for the streets were produced by the million for a couple of hundred years so of course few survive. They were produced for anything more interesting than the drop of a hat and the arrival of the Black Ships, the American squadron commanded by Perry, in 1853 and 54 eclipsed any and all tiresome earthquakes, fires, plagues, famines, murders and scandals. For most Japanese this was the same as a squadron of alien space ships arriving on earth now.
These prints are the kurofune kawaraban. This pair illustrates the gifts Perry presented to the emperor in March 1854. Like most (or all?) kawaraban it's obvious the artist was nowhere near their subjects and ran up drawings from reports, copies of copies and imagination. This is why these things are so much better than official renderings and photographs.
I have found copies of the right hand print - the train - in a few Japanese collections but Waseda and the Kyoiku Library in Yokohama are the only ones I've found with both.
Tsurumine Shigenobu; Sadahide; &c. 米利幹新誌 [variously Meriken Shinshi; Merikan Shinshi; or Merika Shinshi]. Kasugaro 1855 [Ansei 2]. Five volumes 25x18cm, publisher's illustrated wrappers; three double page coloured maps, 22 double page and two single page illustrations. Signs of use and some minor flaws: covers rubbed and one bit of stitching broken; some grubby finger marks in bottom corners; an insignificant bit of worming to the last three leaves. A pretty damn good copy of a book usually reduced to waste paper by use. Au$6500
Usually called the first Japanese book devoted to America, this was celebrated by past generations of Americans as a quaint and amusing example of all the things the Japanese got wrong about America - specially the illustrations which are attributed to Sadahide. Even Hillier (Art of the Japanese Book), who wrote up this and Sadahide's book on Yokahama with warm appreciation, only got part of the way to explaining why this book is so good.
Now I'm sure Sadahide did not do all the illustrations but the best of the illustrations are the work of a master with few rivals anywhere in the world. It makes no sense for him to do two views of different Columbuses and Isabellas, one pedestrian the other a twin portrait that tells something like a love story: two handsome young people suffused with mutual admiration and understanding.
There's no doubt Sadahide used European engravings for style but there is nothing slavish here. I've looked at heaps of paintings and engravings of Columbus and Isabella, looking for a model, and found nothing like this, nothing more convincing in historical terms and certainly nothing with the life of this. Sadahide was no amateur, few could draw with his precision and accuracy when called for, and he knew that what these illustrations of unknown people in an unknown land needed was imagination, action, excitement and intrigue. Look at stolid western engravings of unknown Japan, look at lifeless staged scenes by Spanish and American history painters of the famous occasions here and tell me which world you'd rather live in.
These illustrations are often reproduced but the book is not so easy to find, not complete in decent condition; worldcat finds only four copies outside Japan and a run through other catalogues finds not many more inside Japan or out.
[BRIDGMAN, Elijah Coleman.] Mitsukuri Genpo. 聨邦志畧 [Renpo Shiryaku]. Tokyo, Rokyukan 1864 (Genji 1). Two volumes 26x18cm publisher's embossed yellow wrappers with printed labels (front cover of the first volume marked or dusty, the label incomplete); 56 & 48 leaves (ie 208pp in all); five full page maps with colour and a fair quantity of small maps, some with colours; woodcut illustrations. A rather good copy, quite fresh inside. Au$1500
First edition of the adaptation by Mitsukuri Genpo of the American missionary Bridgman's Da Mei lian bang zhi lue published in Shanghai in 1861 or 62; this was reprinted in 1871. The Shanghai version has been wrongly claimed as the first account of the United States in Chinese - but it's sort of true as it is a revision of Meilige heshengguo zhilue published by Bridgman in Singapore in 1838. For the Japanese this is their first thorough and ostensibly trustworthy account, written as it is by an actual American.
I should make it clear that this is an account of the United States, not of the Americas. The first volume is general, covering history, government, education, culture ... and the second volume zooms in on individual states illustrated by a number of small local maps. It is the first account of American democratic government for the Japanese.
I can't tell you how Mitsukuri dealt with Bridgman's reformist proselytising but anything produced by Mitsukuri carried a lot of weight. A physician by early training he was a scholar of the west and pioneered the introduction of western science, medicine and technology (like the first description of a steam engine) into Japan, usually via the Dutch or Chinese - pretty much the only means of transmission - and served as translator for the Perry mission in 1853.
Catalogue - Furniture. 西洋家具雛形 [Seiyo Kagu Hinagata]. Tokyo, Maruya Sashimonoten [187-?]. Woodblock (and/or cast block?) broadside 18x40cm. Folded, rather good. sold
The Maruya trading company, now Maruzen-Yushodo, maybe Japan's first corporation, was founded in Yokahama in 1869 and their western furniture shop opened in the Ginza in 1872. 69 items are illustrated, including three gatherings of drapery and a croquet set, and to my inexpert eye the furniture looks American.
Maruzen, celebrating their 150th birthday, include a copy of much the same broadside in their gallery of old images. They date it to about 1874 but theirs is on pink paper (this is on traditional mulberry paper), the border is different and the articles are renumbered starting at 51. This suggests that they have a larger stock or that their broadside wishes to suggest a larger stock. Who can tell with a wily merchant?
This must be about the first trade catalogue of western furniture in Japan, no?
Photograph. 東京日日新聞 : 本所深川販売局 : 浦報文舎 [Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun : Honjo fukagawa hanbai-kyoku : Urahobunsha]. n.p. [1872?]. Albumen print 27x21cm mounted on card (42x34cm) with a printed border. Some blotches and small flaws; the white spots you can see appear to be in the negative. Ink inscription on the back. Au$480
An impressive pageant of hats if nothing else. But this is something else: a large commemorative group portrait of the staff of Tokyo's first daily newspaper - the Tokyo Nichi Nichi Shimbun - outside their headquarters.
The 1909 inscription on the back tells us that this photo commemorated sales of three thousand papers. Their first issue appeared in March 1872 (dated February per the old calendar) and I doubt that having set up their office, had staff jackets made and made sure no-one was wearing the same hat, they would lounge around too long.
The paper went on to bigger and better things quickly. In 1877 they moved to a large brick building and by the early 20th century it was one of Japan's major newspapers. In 1943 it was merged with the Osaka Mainichi Shimbun to become the Mainichi Shimbun.
I wonder how much this photograph was a conscious exercise in hierarchy and how much might be instinctive. It's clear the centre of power is in the three men who stand higher than anyone else. The man in the panama, centre in that trio, stands imperious and his right hand man in the boater is hunched so that he doesn't overtop him. The third man loafs at ease. The distance from those three marks seniority.
ALLEN, Charles Bruce; Murata Fumio & Yamada Koichiro. 西洋家作ひながた [Seiyo Kasaku Hinagata]. Tokyo, Gyokuzando 1872 (Meiji 5). Four volumes 23x15cm publisher's wrappers with printed title labels. Illustrations through the text and full page plates - copper engravings. Labels rubbed and mildly chipped; a rather good copy. Au$1150
The first western architecture book published in Japan. I'm intrigued by the choice of the modest 'Cottage Building, or hints for improving the dwellings of the labouring classes' - one of Weale's utilitarian Rudimentary Treatises. Why not European grandeur? American mass production? Allen's small book first appeared in 1849-50 and remained in print, progressively updated, into the 20th century. This translation was made from the 1867, sixth edition.
A sensible enough choice I guess, but when has sense played any part in the introduction of new ideas? Murata Fumio edited 'Seiyo Bunkenroku' (1869 &c) - based on the reports of the Takenouchi mission of 1862 - which focused on England so the connection is clear enough. That there was any significant group pushing for philanthropic reform this early in the Meiji restoration comes as a surprise to me; perhaps this book was chosen as a slap in the face to the opponents of westernisation and modernisation. Ostensibly it was a response to the 1872 Tokyo fire. Allen's book was given by an Englishman to the translator as useful for information on fire-proof buildings. Could it be that simple?
Worldcat finds no copy outside Japan - Columbia apparently has a later reprint. A search of the specialist libraries I can think of found no more.
Mill, John Stuart and Nakamura Masanao. 自由之理 [Jiyu no Ri or Jiyuno Kotowari depending on the transcriber]. On Liberty. Shizuoka, Kihira Ken'ichiro [1872]. Five volumes in six books 23x16cm, publisher's yellow wrappers with title labels. Preface in English signed EWC, this was Edward Warren Clark who taught science in Shizuoka and, later, Tokyo. Covers of the first two books marked; an excellent fresh set. sold
An outstanding set of the first Japanese edition of Mill's On Liberty - a book that Douglas Howland (in Personal Liberty and Public Good) tells us was "reportedly read by the entire generation of educated Japanese who came of age during the restoration".
I hoped to be able to nail down any issue points and clear up any confusion between the two forms this book takes: the five volumes bound as six books, as here, with volume two divided into two; or bound as five books. The confusion is heightened because many libraries and cataloguers use the 1871 date on the title, ignoring the preface dated January 1872.
I thought that a sort of colophon for Dojinsha - Nakamura's school - pasted inside the last back cover might help, but that leaf appears in both versions. Only the cover labels seem to be different. I've found nothing in any language that examines the printing history and while the rule of thumb - everywhere in the world - is that the more costly version - in materials and time - usually came first, I've had to conclude that there isn't any discernible priority and the difference may well be where, rather than when, the books were bound.
Nakamura's translation of Smile's Self Help was also published by Kihira in Shizuoka and it seems that Kihira Ken'ichiro existed as a publisher only for Nakamura's translations of these two books which he made in Shizuoka - home of the deposed Tokugawa shogun - where he taught after his return from England in 1868 until 1872. In other words, Nakamura was really the publisher of both books.
Worldcat finds five, maybe six, locations outside of Japan - one in Britain, the rest in the US - all but one are catalogued as 1871.
Isaac Newton. Kawanabe Kyosai & Nakagane Masahira. 世界風俗往来 - 外篇 [Sekai Fuzoku Orai - gai hen]. Tokyo, 1873 (Meiji 6). 230x155mm publisher's wrapper (a bit used); two full page colour woodblock prints by Kyosai. Minor signs of use, pretty good. sold
Could there be a better portrait of Isaac Newton? I doubt it. Where else have you seen the fierce intellect and the majestic dignity of the warrior king of science so well embodied? In one piercing moment he has seen into the secret heart of all things, made his ruling and brought order to an unruly universe. Having decreed how that apple had moved through space and where it now rests he defies it to move again.
The other picture is of the young James Watt making his first steam powered discoveries. The myth of child Watt and the kettle seems to date from 1839 with Arago's Eloge of James Watt and in picture a few years later; the earliest I found is an 1844 wood engraving in Jerrold's Illuminated Magazine illustrating a fanciful retelling by Angus Reach. Kyosai's picture is closer in form to Buss's 1845 painting than Marcus Stone's 1863 reworking of the story but it is clear that he has worked - as with Newton and the apple - from the story rather than any pictorial model.
OCLC finds only the Diet Library copy of this but Waseda University has a sadly chewed copy they illustrate online.
* Included with this is the companion but separate work 'Sekai Fuzuko Orai hatsu hen'. This has no title label and has some pretty insignifcant worming at the beginning; with two full page woodcuts.
Iehara Masanori & Shiozu Kanichiro. 学校必用 - 色図問答 [Gakko Hitsuyo - Irozu Mondo]. Kyoto? [1876 or later?] 22x15cm publisher's wrapper with title label; [2],40,pp on 22 double folded leaves, two colour charts and small colour squares through the text, hand coloured. Covers quite shabby, pretty good inside. Not bad for an old school book. sold
An undated issue with no colophon. The bibliography of this book stumps me. It was issued with a few different imprints and reprinted with more. The green title looks like the block is worn but might be poor inking; the contents are clear, dark impressions.
Western colour theory introduced to Japanese students. This was, according to one historian and repeated by others, first published in 1873 but I can't find any copy earlier than 1876. I have read that it is a translation of an American book by Marcius Willson but I think there is some confusion. Willson produced wall charts for American schools that were used in Japan and I suspect that in 1873 wall chart no. XIV was introduced. His accompanying writings on color in his 'Manual of Information and Suggestions for Object Lessons' - the work cited - are nothing like this.
In any case he seems to have borrowed Field's chromatics. So it was English colour theory that made its way into Japan first.
Okamoto Kisen and Utagawa Yoshitora (artist). 夜嵐阿衣花廼仇夢 [Yoarashi Okinu Hana no Adayume]. Tokyo, Kinshodo 1878 (Meiji 11). 15 volumes 18x17cm publisher's colour woodblock wrappers, grouped into five parts each with its colour woodblock outer wrapper (fukuro). The first book of each of the five parts has four or five colour woodblocks, the rest is amply illustrated in b/w. An outstanding set. sold
A spiffing copy of one the prizes of the dokufu craze of the early Meiji. Dofuku - poisonous women - are nothing new of course but the happy conjunction at the advent of mass circulation newspapers of a beautifully timed series of murders by unvirtuous young women set the sensation mongers and their readers all of a fever. Newspaper to book, lurid print to kabuki and back again, dokufu were all the rage for a couple of decades. Along the way crime fiction was born and, in a way, modern Japanese literature.
Among the early Meiji dokufu, the heroines, or - as seen from here - the victims, were Takahashi Oden, Hanai Oume, and Yoarashi Okinu (Harada Kinu) - our dokufu. Harada's end was sad and gruesome but her life is only known from the speculation of Okamoto Kisen, journalists and playwrights. I think it was Okamoto who gave her the name Yoarashi - night storm - taken from her death poem.
In short, she was the mistress of Kobayashi Kinpei, a money lender, and fell in love with kabuki actor, Rikaku. Together they decided to poison Kobayashi to gain her freedom. She was beheaded in 1872 while Rikaku had his death sentence commuted to three years in prison. He returned to the stage.
In case you are in any doubt about the nature of these books notice that the covers are small theatre prints. Kabuki theatre may have been introducing new ideas of realism into performances but writers and artists were under no obligation to do the same.
Nukina Shun'ichi. 星世界旅行 第1編 [Hoshi Sekai Ryoko - Dai-ichi-hen]. Kyoto, Nukina Shun'ichi 1882 (Meiji 15). 18x13cm publisher's cloth backed boards (the paper covering of the boards quite nibbled but the title intact); [6],144,[3]pp, one full page and five half page illustrations. Title and last leaf browned; quite a good copy. sold
First edition of the first Japanese science fiction novel. This is proper interplanetary - intergalactic even - space travel, not old fashioned fantasy or fable. The title translates literally as 'Star World Travel'. For a while this was apparently regarded as a Jules Verne translation until someone figured out that there is no Jules Verne novel like this to translate.
Maybe there is undoubted Verne influence but since this has never been translated and there is virtually nothing written in English and very little in Japanese on Nukina and his novel I can't help much. What does emerge from the few brief notices I have found is that on one planet the work is done by artificially created organic creatures - androids or robots - that are governed by three rules. It would be hard to argue that either Capek or Asimov pinched their ideas from Nukina but once again we find that no great notion doesn't have a precursor.
This is volume one - containing five chapters - there is no volume two. At the end is a teasing hint of what chapters six to twelve might contain but we are unlikely to ever know for sure. Worldcat finds only the Diet library entry and I can't find a hint of a copy anywhere outside Japan.
Suwa Sanpei. 開化萬寿鏡 [Kaika Masukagami]. Tokyo, Yamanaka Shobo 1888 (Meiji 21). 13x10cm publisher's cloth backed colour illustrated boards; [2],92,[2]pp on double folded leaves, one full page, numerous small illustrations throughout. Binding, flimsy as always with these board books, a bit loose; a remarkably nice copy. Au$300
This seems to be a rare book - I can't find a record of another copy anywhere - and it's a neat little manual of enlightened help for women. Beauty and hairstyles, specially hairstyles, feature. There are dozens of hairstyles illustrated from the latest western imports to what seems to be a run through a thousand years of Japanese styles. Many identified by region in romaji for some reason.
FOWLER, O.S. [Orson Squire] and Hashizume Kanichi. 男女交合新論 [Danjo Kogo Shinron]. Tokyo, Shunyodo 1888 (Meiji 21). 19x13cm publisher's illustrated cloth backed boards (mild red splodge across the top); 160pp. Natural browning of the paper. Most of the contents are loose. This was put together with an approach to cheap binding that was maybe too experimental: the pages were to be held together by two ribbons of paper punched through the inner margin. It looks like something went amiss and while the pages have been punched, the paper tape only got part of the way through or snapped immediately. It explains why the book vanished so thoroughly. So, I claim this as quite a good copy. Au$100
Sixth edition of the sex part of Orson Fowler's 'Creative and Sexual Science' translated into Japanese. Hashizume, the translator, produced quantities of handy guides to English and useful translations. I guess he considered that learning about American phrenological approaches to sex would be interesting, and so it proved.
The colophon tells us the book was registered in 1878 but I'm unable to find any copy earlier than 1887; worldcat finds one entry in Japan, none outside. I can tell you it reached the ninth edition by 1892.
陸海軍服制圖 [Rikukaigun fukuseizu]. Tokyo, Kawai Genzo 1889 (Meiji 22). 18x13cm publisher's boards with title label; [32]pp accordian folded, with colour illustrations throughout. Covers grubby with an ink inscription on the back, some old repairs to folds, marks and smudges inside. A used copy, but. Au$175
An appealing little illustrated guide to the uniforms and accoutrements of soldier and sailor.
Worldcat finds an 1892 edition in the Diet library but nothing else.
Sino-Japanese War. 繪本 日清韓戰爭記 [Ehon Nichi Shin Kan Sensoki]. Tokyo, Kinjudo 1894 (Meiji 27). 12x8cm publisher's wrapper with title label; engravings on folded leaves: 15 double page, two single page and one four page. A nice copy with its colour woodcut outer wrapper. Au$450
A fabulous copy of a fabulous little book; this is a near exquisite (in the sense of bijoux books for ladies and aesthetes) little book celebrating the bloodshed and mayhem of the Sino-Japanese war all done in engraved plates.
There are two - at least - books from the same publisher with the same title but the pictures are different. So even if you have this title you may not have this book. Worldcat only finds the Diet Library entry.
Sino-Japanese War. 繪本 日清韓戰爭記 [Ehon Nichi Shin Kan Sensoki]. Tokyo, Kinjudo 1894 (Meiji 27). 12x8cm publisher's wrapper with title label; engravings on folded leaves: nine double page, two single page and one four page. Some prints are pale but a nice copy with its colour woodcut outer wrapper. Au$400
This is how I know there are at least two of these books with the same title.
Hikifuda. Benkyo Shoten? 和洋雑貨毛織物類 [Wayo Zakka Keorimono-rui]. Hikifuda - or handbill - for a sale of Japanese and western wool textiles. n.p. [190-?]. Colour lithograph broadside 38x26cm. A touch browned round the edges. Au$100
An exuberant yet elegant thoroughly up to the minute snapshot of a stylish woman - with her painfully exquisite daughter - graciously acknowledging the attention of the shop boy at a busy warehouse sale of fabrics.
Specimen Tea Label. Smile Extra Choicest Spring Leaf Japan Tea. n.p. n.d. (early c20th?) Colour woodcut 39x34cm. An outstanding, crisply impressed copy. Au$225
A fabulous and puzzling large label - ranji - for export tea chests that would do any sixties' album cover proud. I have learnt that woodcut printing survived for tea labels after other printing went litho because exporters didn't want the ink smell contaminating their tea. Printing quality was high, this was international advertising, but the labels that survive are of course remainders or samples. I take this to be a sample - the paper is good quality and heavy and the printing immaculate - for a label maybe never used. I have looked through hundreds of labels online without finding any Smile Tea. Can an expert put me straight?
This has what a label needs: bright colours, bold contrast, lively typography and an arresting design. But it doesn't have what other tea labels have: a pretty picture that foreigners will immediately recognise as Japan. No elaborately kimonoed beauty, no Fuji, no lucky god. No kimonoed beauty on a tea plantation terrace with a lucky god in attendance and Fuji in the distance. What we have is a happy but somehow sinister character.
With those ears he is surely a wrestler. But bald? Was there a happy bald wrestler famous enough in Japan that someone thought he might translate to the outside world? An ex-wrestler who became famous as the eternally cheerful muscle for the mob?
Hikifuda & Sugoroku. 日露記念双六 [Nichiro Kinen Sugoroku]. n.p. [1905?]. Colour lithograph 26x37cm. A bit smudged and rumpled, pretty good. Au$300
I have seen a few hikifuda made as sugoroku but they have been staid affairs featuring birds, flowers and graceful women in flowing kimonos. This exuberant advertisement game celebrates the Russo-Japanese war victory.
These hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed.
Kaburagi Kiyokata & Miyagawa Haru? 冒険雙六 [Boken Sugoroku]. Shonenkai 1906 (Meiji 39). Colour broadside 47x63cm. Folded as issued, rather good. Au$300
Don't be fooled by the elegant and delicate artwork. This new year gift from the boy's magazine Shonenkai is filled with adventure, peril and slaughter. Nothing with fur, fin or feather - if large enough - is safe from these boys on their jaunt round the world. When they aren't shooting eagles they are clubbing seals.
No artist is named but a 2016 exhibition at the Shinjuku Historical Museum attributed this game to Kaburagi and Miyagawa.
Nakazawa Hiromitsu, Kobayashi Shokichi & Okano Sakae. 東洋未来雙六 [Toyo Mirai Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Hakubunkan 1907 (Meiji 40). Colour printed broadside, 55x78cm. A little browning, rather good. sold
A view, or a panoply of views, of a future Asia. Some of these vignettes of what's to come are obvious enough - schoolgirls at rifle drill and sumo wrestlers in striped bathers - but a few seem fairly recondite to me. I'm not sure how much is optimistic, how much is dire warning and how much is wearily stoic.
Nakazawa, Kobayashi and Okano, still young, had been fellow students at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, and of Kuroda Seiki, and collaborated on the five volume Nihon Meisho Shasei Kiko, issued over several years.
Asai Chu. 当世風俗五十番歌合 [Tosei Fuzoku Gojuban Utaawase]. Tokyo, Yoshikawa Hanschichi 1907 (Meiji 40). Two volumes 25x18cm publisher's wrapper with title labels; 52 full page colour woodcuts by Asai. A couple of bits of stitching broken, still an outstanding pair: fresh, crisp, beautifully printed. Au$850
First edition of this captivating collection of portraits of couples, if only momentarily. Each of these illustrations accompanies a poem on modern customs; the book's title calls this a poetry competition.
Asai, elder and teacher of the school of western painting, fortunately never abandoned the tradition of satirical illustration - though there is more good natured but pointed humour here than harsh satire. This was published just before his death.
Kameda Yoshiro (or Kichirobei). 和洋建築新雛形 [Wayo Kenchiku Shin Hinagata]. Osaka, Seikado 1907 (Meiji 40). Six volumes 22x15cm, publisher's wrappers with title labels; illustrated throughout with plans, elevations, measured drawings etc. Wrappers with some surface rubbing or insect grazing; a pretty good set. Au$850
I'm not sure whether this should be described as Japanese principles applied to western design or the other way round. I think both, if it matters. An excellent builder's pattern book that was certainly put to wide use.
There is a learned 2008 paper by Yanigasawa and Mizoguchi that shows how Kameda introduced Japanese carpentry and the modular system into western design but all except the precis of their paper is in Japanese so I have no idea how they go about proving their point. They do tell us that Kameda was a master carpenter in Fukuoka.
Ogino Issui. 図案百題 [Zuan Hyakudai]. Kyoto, Unsodo 1910 (Meiji 43). Three volumes 27x20cm publisher's boards with colour woodcuts (some marks and scrapes); colour woodcuts on 158 pages, accordian folding. Some spots and minor signs of use inside, the first inner hinge strengthened; a rather good set. Au$1800
First edition. This is called a hundred designs but I count a hundred and thirty. I guess several pairs or trios count as one design.
Ogino was one of the more beguiling and inventive of the Korin-Sekka-neo-Rimpa group of designers who took back some art nouveau that had been pinched from Japan by Europe. But of course the inspiration owes more to the original 17th century Korin: Ogata.
