Shinju shahoron [New Theory of Portable Firearms].
Four very large woodblock printed folding plates, many tables & diagrams in the text. 2, 8, 19 folding leaves. Large 8vo (255 x 183 mm.), orig. aubergine semi-stiff patterned wrappers, orig. block-printed title label on upper cover, new stitching. [Japan]: 1857.
The very rare first edition in Japanese of an elaborate analysis of the muzzle-loading Minié rifle, an innovative French infantry weapon of the mid-19th century. The translator, Kosaburo Akamatsu (1831-67), was a rangaku scholar and an important military scientist. He translated several other Western military works. This is a translation of Booms’s Verhandeling over het schot der draagbare vuurwapens... More