Six double-page woodcuts. 22.5; 21.5; 25.5 folding leaves. Three vols. 8vo, orig. semi-stiff wrappers (rather tired), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers (one label quite rubbed & defective), new stitching. From the colophon: Edo et al.: Suharaya Mohei, 1768.

First edition of this rare ukiyozoshi [“books of the floating world”], a type of prose story popular in the 18th century, intensely realistic and usually involving ordinary townspeople. We find no copy of this book in WorldCat.

This collection of 21 witty stories, full of puns and double-meanings, is based on the famous Chinese mythological story of the Yama King... More

First edition and very rare; this book is based on the Jusen wakan koto hennen gounzu (ca. 1611) by Nichisei (or Nichisho or Enchi, 1554-1614), a priest at the Yohoji Temple in Kyoto, where they printed “a series of important books…between 1600 and 1614” (Chibbett) with movable types. Nichisei supervised the temple’s printing program and also wrote and edited most of the works himself. Chronology was used in this work to legitimize the ruling families and dynasties and to provide a historical context and memory.

Yoshida (1598-1672), a member of a prominent family of physicians and engineers, is most famous... More

30; 32; 38; 40 folding leaves. Four vols. Large 8vo, orig. dark green patterned wrappers (some worming touching but not obscuring text), orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Kyoto: Fushimiya Toemon, colophon dated “1683.”

First edition to be published in Japan of this important encyclopedic work, printed in Chinese with Japanese reading marks. One of the first encyclopedias compiled in China, it was written by Hua Zhang (232-300), statesman, book collector, scholar, writer, and protoscientist, who also wrote, with Xu Xun, the famous catalogue of the imperial library known as Zhongjing bu [Catalogue of the Palace Texts]... More

13 columns per page, 18 characters per column. 43; 49; 55 folding leaves. Three vols. 8vo (279 x 195 mm.), orig. wrappers stained dark brown with fermented persimmon juice to prevent worming (nevertheless wrappers a little wormed, with careful repairs), cont. manuscript title labels, with “Kongen” written on each cover, new stitching. [Japan]: ca. 1630-40.

A rare movable type edition, unrecorded by Kawase or WorldCat. Sorimachi, in his wonderful Catalogue 42 (1972) of movable type books, describes a copy (item 419) and gives a date of “mid-Kan’ei” (ca. 1630-40). In his description, Sorimachi states that the full title of this... More

114 woodcut maps (mostly double-page or longer), 18 full-page woodcuts of ships, one full-page image of an anchor, & about 63 pages of woodcut images of cannons and guns, armor, spears, shields, explosives, soldiers on horses shooting arrows, etc. 13 juan in 14 vols. 8vo, early wrappers, new stitching. Loudong: several Prefaces dated 1693.

The best edition from the view of its contents (see Li Zhizhong’s article, cited below), and very rare, of this landmark work on Chinese geography and coastal defenses, written during a crisis of large-scale piracy in southeastern China. This work, first published ca. 1562, contains the... More

Ten columns, 20 characters per column. 34; 33; 42 folding leaves. 8vo (270 x 193 mm.), orig. pale brown wrappers (some relatively minor worming, mostly confined to the margins, but occasionally touching a character), new stitching. [Mount Hiei: before 1625].

A very rare movable type Eizan-ban; WorldCat and the Union Catalogue of Early Japanese Books do not record a copy. Kawase knows only of another edition with 19 characters per column, dated mid-Kan’ei (1615-33) and printed at Nishi Honganji Temple in Kyoto.

Eizan-ban are books published at the Enryakuji monastery complex on Mount Hiei outside of Kyoto. “Eizan printing came... More

Three vols. Small 8vo, orig. printed wrappers, orig. stitching. Shanghai: Shang wu yin shu guan [Commercial Press], 1935.

First edition, and rare, of this important bibliography, which lists more than 7000 local gazetteers (fangzhi). It is arranged to be convenient for readers to find extant gazetteers for certain provinces or counties quickly. For each title, the author provides the title, number of volumes, authorship, date, locations of copies in libraries and private collections (including Japan, Mongolia, Taiwan, and the United States), and notes with additional information. Both book title index and name index are arranged by stroke count. Volume III... More