Issues 1-8 (of 9?). Several black & white photographs. Eight vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, orig. stitching. Beijing: Beijing guxue yuan 北京古學院, 1939-40.

A good run, apparently lacking only the final volume, of the serial publication of Beijing guxue yuan, the Beijing Academy for Ancient Studies, was founded in 1937 following the Japanese occupation of northern China, including Beijing. The Academy was a conservative institution dedicated to teaching and publishing in a traditional Confucian vein. Its history is described in the first issue of the series, and its bylaws are included in... More

Three finely illustrated handscrolls (emakimono) on fine smooth torinoko gold-sprinkled paper, with 16 finely executed brush & polychrome paintings, accompanying text in a fine calligraphic cursive hand, rich “golden mud” borders at top & bottom of each painting, speckled with cut gold leaf on reverse side. Three scrolls (323 x 11,640, 12,760, & 17,925 mm.), outer front endpaper covered with blue silk brocade with gold motifs, inner front endpapers of scored gold paper, manuscript label on outside of each scroll on fine decorated paper with nature motifs, entitled “Iwaya monogatari,” modern core rollers with finely decorated colored enamel caps. [Japan]... More

73; 67; 57; 70; 69; 56; 52; 74; 73 folding leaves. Ten juan in nine vols. Large 8vo, orig. wrappers, new stitching. [Japan]: from final leaf of final volume (in trans.): “ninth month September 1619.”

First movable type edition printed in Japan, and a very rare book; there is apparently no copy in WorldCat. There is an example in the National Diet Library.

The book is of unknown authorship, but both its contents and the extant editions suggest that it was written in the Yuan period (1271-1368). It lists the family names of prominent Chinese lineages arranged by pronunciation. The... More

Two brush & ink drawings in the text. 89 folding leaves. 8vo (190 x 127 mm.), orig. wrappers (wrappers somewhat frayed), orig. stitching. [Japan?: mid-Edo].

A most interesting and extensive manuscript on acupuncture and moxibustion, divided into seven parts. Based on WorldCat and Kyoto University’s manuscript with the same title, we can attribute the authorship of these texts to Chishin Tanaka, a physician of the early Edo period.

The first four parts (“East,” “West,” “South,” “North”; 17, 17, 25, 12 leaves, respectively) are devoted to general principles of acupuncture and moxibustion. In each of these parts, many symptoms and case... More

Two parts in one vol. 25, 13 folding leaves. 8vo (198 x 135 mm.), orig. wrappers (rubbed), old stitching. [Japan]: at the beginning of each part & on final leaf (in trans.): “Oyo [today, Nagoya] retired doctor Tokei [or] Tokoku Yoshida copied 6 June 1767.”

The first part provides a detailed explanation of the theory and practice of acupuncture, concentrating on 28 different ways to use the needle. At the end of this part, there is a most interesting discussion of Zi Wu Liu zhu [The Midnight-Noon Ebb-Flow Acupuncture Method], which is used as a theoretical guide to determine whether... More

Finely colored title & 12 colored tipped-in plates by Ryuichi Oana. 1 p.l., 160 pp., one leaf of colophon. Small folio, orig. yellow cloth with pictorial medallions inset into each cover, orig. glassine wrapper & slipcase. Tokyo: Kaizosha, 1928.

First edition, posthumously published, of this beautiful book, a collection of fairy tales, including the famous story “Kumo no ito” [“The Spider’s Thread”]. Akutagawa (1892-1927), is today most famous for having written the story “In the Grove” which was the basis for the classic film Rashomon by Kurosawa.

Fine copy of an example of luxurious Japanese bookmaking. More

33.5 folding leaves. 8vo, orig. semi-stiff patterned wrappers (a little rubbed), orig. title-slip on upper cover, new stitching. [Edo]: Uonisai 有乎爾齋, title-page: 1849; at end of text: 1850.

First edition to be printed in Japan (first printed in Korea in 1663) of this personal history of the Japanese invasion of Korea (the Imjin War) at the end of the 16th century. An (1573-1654), a native of Chuksan, south of Seoul, had a significant leadership role during the Japanese invasions, organizing and leading local resistance and contributing to the broader guerilla warfare strategy.

“According to the preface added to this... More

35; 18 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo, orig. aubergine patterned wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Edo, Kyoto, & Osaka: various publishers, Prefaces dated 1859, Afterwords dated 1860.

First edition of this very rare work on epidemics and communicable diseases. “Koretsune or Ritsuen or Sohaku Asada (1813-1894) was a famous physician and a prolific writer on a variety of subjects in Japanese medicine…Asada began the study of medicine at the age of 13, soon coming under the influence of old Chinese physicians in Kyoto, a circumstance which was to have a powerful effect on his later... More

80 pp. 8vo (216 x 135 mm.), early 20th-cent. cloth-backed marbled boards & orig. printed wrappers mounted on stubs, gilt title on spine. Paris: Bonnefons Delavialle, Ch. Paillet; London: Treuttel & Wurtz, Jarman; Amsterdam: Dufour & De la Chaux; Brussels: Danot; Berlin: Logier & Simon Schropp; Vienna: Schabacher, [1826].

A fascinating and rare auction catalogue of an extensive and influential collection of Asian artifacts belonging to a “F. Sallé,” with many contemporary pencil annotations in the margins. We have been unable to ascertain his first name, but Sallé appears in numerous early 19th-century Parisian auction catalogues as the commissaire-priseur.

This... More

Four double-page woodcuts & woodcuts in the text. 26 folding leaves. 8vo, orig. semi-stiff wrappers, new stitching. [Japan]: Preface dated 1832.

First edition, and very rare, of this well-illustrated work on Ryukyu, providing a history of the kingdom and introducing its geography, culture, folklore, and gods. The four double-page woodcuts depict Shuri, the king’s principal castle in Naha, the capital city of the Ryukyu kingdom; a map of the 36 islands of the Ryukyu archipelago, a map of Okinawa island, and images of women dancers in the pleasure quarter.

The text describes the archipelago’s chief geographical features, agricultural practices, natural... More

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

Ten columns per page, 18 characters per column. 49; 55 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo (280 x 198 mm.), orig. brown wrappers (upper cover of Vol. I somewhat soiled, wrappers of Vol. II a little wormed), new stitching. [Japan, perhaps on Mount Hiei: ca. 1600-40].

An extremely rare movable type edition; not in Kawase or Sorimachi. WorldCat locates only a copy, at Kyoto University. Our copy comes from the famous collection of Toshie Obama with his seal at the foot of the first leaf of Vol. I.

Chih yun was a disciple of Tiantai Zhiyi (538-97), one of the most... More