Two double-page & three full-page woodcuts. 14.5 folding leaves (pagination irregular but complete). 8vo, orig. patterned orange wrappers (a little soiled & rubbed), orig. block-printed title label on upper cover, new stitching. Ushu [in today’s Yamagata Prefecture], Naraya Ichibei, 1691.

First edition of this very rare work on practical business mathematics and the use of the abacus by the wasan scholar, Nakamura Seiei (d. 1734). There is no copy of the first edition in WorldCat, which lists only the reprints of 1926 and 1935.

The Mujin (or tanomoshi), a sort of rotating savings and credit cooperative association, has existed... More