HIKONE HAN 彦根藩.

Seicha zukai 製茶圖解 [Tea Production, Illustrated].

1871. One double-page & 19 full-page woodcut illus. 18 folding leaves. 8vo, orig. yellow wrappers (a little marked), orig. title-slip on upper cover, new stitching. Hikone han: Preface dated 1871.

First edition, issued by the Hikone han fiefdom in today’s Shiga Prefecture, one of the first regions in Japan to cultivate tea trees. This is a rare book.

In the beginning of the Meiji era, the nation’s leaders settled on silk and green tea as the two main products most suitable for immediate export. This work describes and finely illustrates the methods of tea production in the fiefdom of Hikone han, printed to encourage farmers to enlarge and improve their crops. Each step, from the planting of seeds to cultivating the tea trees to the picking of tea leaves to drying and storing to removing impurities, is well depicted.

In fine condition.

Price: $2,500.00

Item ID: 10941