Japan: ca. 1920-30.

A remarkable collection of more than 1600 Japanese chopstick wrappers, all carefully mounted in six albums. The wrappers vary from very plain to highly elaborate and offer a wide range of design and typography. Many have telephone numbers. The anonymous collector painstakingly (and lovingly) assembled this collection in the 1920s and 1930s; the wrappers advertise famous and forgotten restaurants, which served mostly Japanese but also Chinese and Western cuisines, from almost everywhere in Japan, ranging from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south, including Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, prominent hot spring resorts, and many famous sightseeing destinations... More

Large 4to (303 x 237 mm.), orig. boards covered with patterned silk (the silk has become quite worn). [Japan]: Meiji–Taisho eras.

A wonderful survey of the confectionaries and snacks manufactured throughout Japan at the beginning of the 20th century. Many items are identified with the manufacturers’ names and their cities. Most of these companies, especially in Kyoto, Tokyo, and Osaka, are still active, more than a century later.

These sweets and snacks are very regional, made from special ingredients found only in that part of Japan. The geographical range of manufacturers is from Hokkaido in the north, through the main... More

45 woodcut illus. in the text. 29 folding leaves. Three vols. in one. Large 8vo, orig. wrappers (rather rubbed, some light dampstaining), remains of block-printed title label on upper cover, modern stitching. [Kyoto]: Osumi Seibei, [Foreword dated 1311, colophon dated 1675].

The third edition — preceded by an undated early 17th-century undated edition and a 1659 edition — of this collection of dissertations on moxibustion and acupuncture. It concerns moxibustion treatment for adults and children with 36 pictures of adults and nine of children, illustrating the locations of acupuncture points with explanations of efficacies. This edition is notable for presenting... More

Three large folded sheets & two lengthy letters with their original manuscript envelopes. Japan: ca. 1822-31.

An exceptional collection of documents on two consequential early Western visits to Japan in the 1820s: the first landing of the Saracen at Uraga and the Takarajima incident. During this period, accounts of these incursions were kept top-secret as matters of Japanese national security. Pre-Commodore Perry materials, such as ours, are extremely scarce. This collection also contains well-rendered drawings of foreigners and their ships. The letters sent by government officials speak to the widespread anxiety throughout the country in the face of much more... More

Seven columns of text per page. 68; 72 folding leaves. Two vols. Large 8vo (285 x 206 mm.), orig. (or very early) dark thick wrappers (strengthened & with new endpapers), new stitching. From the colophon: Kyoto: Ekirin Hirai, 1597.

The setsuyoshu, the essential Japanese dictionary, “one of the mainstays of the publishing industry and…probably the most likely book to be found in a house of few books.”–Kornicki, The Book in Japan, p. 248. Widely used from the 15th century through the early Meiji period; there were more than 500 editions in many styles and formats, and many with additions. All... More

30 black & white brush & ink drawings of diseased horses. Scroll (130 x 27,630 mm.), 94 joined sheets, with several extension flaps, which fold down with additional text, recently & expertly backed. Omi Province (today’s Shiga Province): the most modern date we find in the scroll is 1809.

A remarkably long scroll (90 feet); this is the most comprehensive old Japanese encyclopedia of horse diseases and their treatments we have encountered. The text includes recipes for medicines and acupuncture techniques as well as numerous case histories. There are references in this scroll to texts being copied in 1611. Each... More

Seven vols. 8vo (218 x 160 mm.), orig. wrappers, each with an individual title label on upper cover, new stitching. [Japan: all late Edo].

A fascinating collection of texts on equine medicine, all bound in a similar fashion:

Vol. 1: Manuscript label on upper cover, entitled “Basho hijutsu den” [“Horse Book Secret Methods Passed On”]. Nine brush & ink illus. in the text. 31 folding leaves. This text is concerned with exercising horses in each season, and includes “32 Rules of Exercise.” At the end, we find a date of 1825, the name of the person who provided this information... More

8vo (218 x 158 mm.), orig. silk-covered boards, gold label on upper cover, paintings pasted on gold-flecked paper over stiff boards. [Japan]: late Edo or Meiji era.

A very fine album of 12 paintings (the well-known “set of 12“ format) of women’s vulvas, mostly with penises inserted. Many of the scenes are obviously post-coital. The details of the pubic hair and sexual organs are very beautifully painted in vivid colors. One of the images depicts a very young woman masturbating, and another shows a man’s hand stimulating his partner.

In fine condition, preserved in an attractive silk brocade patterned chitsu... More

Scroll on paper (330 x 4680 mm.), with seven scenes in brush & ink and color washes, gold-flecked endpapers, gold-flecked borders throughout, silk brocade on outside of endpapers, silver-flecked paper on verso of scroll, wooden core roller. [Japan: late Edo].

A remarkable erotic scroll depicting the visit of a group of traveling Buddhist priests to a roadside inn, where they have much and varied sex with each other and the inn’s female employees, who supplemented their incomes as prostitutes. There are seven scenes:

1. The first scene depicts two young Buddhist priests, one a younger assistant, with walking sticks. They... More

Scroll (300 x 4150 mm.), with pale green silk borders & endpapers, wooden core roller. [Japan]: n.d. but probably early Edo.

This is a fine example of an erotic scroll, anonymously painted as usual but with great skill. The scroll contains ten scenes of men (sometimes samurai) and women engaged in various sexual activities. Two of the scenes are threesomes, one of which shows a young samurai copulating with two older women. The hairstyles of both the women and men are typical of the pleasure courts of the early Edo period.

Erotic paintings in Japan have a long tradition, established... More

Ten cards (181 x 50 mm.), all preserved in the orig. folded color-printed wrapper, entitled on upper panel Furyu e tanzaku [Elegantly Illustrated Tanzaku Cards]. [Japan: Meiji Era].

Ten erotic cards, issued together, each in the tanzaku ban format, and accompanied by their original color-printed wrapper. Tanzaku cards were popular in the Meiji era (1868-1912); see Rosina Buckland’s “Erotic Art of the Meiji Era (1868-1912)” in Timothy Clark et al., eds., Shunga. Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art (British Museum: 2013), pp. 454-55.

The upper panel of each is very finely color-printed with saturated inks, embossing, and rich use of... More

Seven double-page (one of which has flaps & folds out into a four-panel scene) and two single-page woodcuts, all finely color-printed, and nine double-page black & white woodcuts. One color-printed title-page pasted down on inner upper wrapper, 24 folding leaves. Small 8vo, orig. color-printed upper wrapper, with embossing, decorated lower wrapper, new stitching. [Edo]: Preface dated 1864.

First edition and very rare; we find no copy in WorldCat. The Preface was written by Tanekiyo Ryusuitei (1823-1907), using his pen name “Insuitei.”

Following one of the frequent fires in the famous pleasure quarters of Yoshiwara, often started by the prostitutes in... More