36 detailed hand-drawn scenes throughout, employing many ink washes in various colors. [45] folding leaves, i.e., [90] pp. Large orihon (accordion format: 277 x 199 mm.), blue silk covers over boards (a little rubbed), endpapers decorated with sprinkled golden leaf. Japan: “1855.”

A most remarkable orihon, containing the earliest impressions of Americans and Russians, recorded by a Japanese artist in 1855. This work was created immediately in the aftermath of both countries’ expeditions to forcefully open Japan.

This is the first time we have handled a “Black Ship” item in book format instead of an emaki (picture scroll). All of... More

Ten pages of manuscript illus. in the first vol. plus a number of graphs & tables in the text. 724 folding leaves. Eleven parts in 12 vols. 8vo (265 x 185 mm.), orig. semi-stiff wrappers, new stitching. [Japan]: 1847.

The most complete copy known of one of the two Japanese translations of J. N. Calten’s Leiddraad bij het Onderrigt de Zee-Artillerie (Dutch eds.: 1832, 1842, and 1847). In the second quarter of the 19th century, Japan had an urgent need to update its artillery and learn more about the artillery of its international adversaries. Artillery had been used... More

20; 45.5; 9.5; 6.5; 2.5; 2 folding leaves. Six parts in one vol. 8vo (260 x 185 mm.), orig. printed self-wrappers, stapled. [Korea]: before Autumn 1940, probably late 1939-early 1940.

A fascinating printed government document, stamped on upper wrapper with a seal (“Gokuhi” 極秘) indicating this was a classified document.

During Japan’s colonization of Korea (1910-45), the occupiers installed a newly centralized and effective police apparatus, which included a massive influx of Japanese military and police. The suppression of nationalists, dissidents, religious leaders, and anarchists was severe. With Japan’s occupation of Manchuria and its growing war effort, the ruling... More

Trans. by Shimamura Teiho 島村鼎甫. Four full-page illus. of surgical instruments. 38.5; 67.5 folding leaves. Two vols. 8vo, orig. semi-stiff patterned wrappers, orig. printed title-slips on upper covers, new stitching. Edo: Suharaya Ihachi 須原屋伊八, 1866.

First edition in Japanese of this translation of the tenth chapter, on wounds and contusions, from Gross’s highly important A System of Surgery (1st ed.: Philadelphia: 1859). Our edition was translated from the 1863 edition in Dutch. This was the first translation of any of Gross’s writings into Japanese; many of his books were fully translated later, in the 1870s.

Fine set and... More

Print (830 x 585 mm.), mounted on a hanging scroll (1320 x 620 mm.), with wooden roller & cord for hanging. [Nagasaki: Toshimaya 豊嶋屋], 1782.

This striking print, carefully and appropriately mounted on a hanging scroll, is an important and rare survival: it made possible the publication of Hayashi’s “epoch-making” (Donald Keene) Kaikoku heidan 海國兵談 [Military Defense of a Maritime Nation], which was privately issued beginning in 1787. This book, which caused a sensation, called for stronger military forces and a maritime defense capability to enable the island nation to repel aggressive encroaching actions by Western nations, particularly... More

Many fine extended images of musketeers in various positions, firearms, targets, etc. Paper shiny with infused mica. Eleven vols. Narrow 8vo (234 x 105 mm.), orig. semi-stiff blue boards (some rubbing & wear), silver endpapers with floral patterns, orig. gilt paper labels on upper covers with manuscript titles (several are missing). [Japan]: dated “August 1660” at end of each volume.

An unusually large group of manuscripts, collectively known as the “Inatomi ryū hōjutsu hidensho” 稲富流砲術秘伝書, “Secret Information, Passed Down, of the Inatomi School of Gunnery & Marksmanship.” At the end of all the volumes, the “lineage” of this secret information... More

Finely engraved added allegorical title-page & added engraved port. of the author, 158 engraved plates (numbered 1-54; 1-42; 1-25; 1-15; 1-17; 1-5), five engraved headpieces & four tailpieces in the text, and several finely engraved initials. 8 p.l., 127, [14] pp., 1 leaf of errata. Folio, cont. red morocco, gilt arms of Nicolas-Joseph Foucault on covers, panelled in gilt, spine gilt, a.e.g. Rome: J.J. Komarek, 1690.

First edition, and a splendid copy in handsome contemporary red morocco with the arms of Nicolas Joseph Foucault, of a “sumptuous work describing and depicting upon the excellent engraved plates a large variety of... More

Many fine black & white double-page & single-page woodcuts throughout. Ten vols. 8vo, orig. blue semi-stiff wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers (three labels are somewhat defective), new stitching. Osaka: Tenmaya Yasubei; Kyoto: Yoshida Jihei, 1835.

[with]:

— & MATSUKAWA Hanzan; —. Ehon Toyotomi Ryukyu gunki [Illustrated Tale of the Ryukyu War]. Many fine black & white double-page & single-page woodcuts throughout (six in Vol. I are color-printed). Ten vols. 8vo, orig. pale blue patterned wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Osaka: Kawachiya Tobei & Kawachiya Mohei, colophon dated 1864; title-page... More

Four full-page woodcut illus. .5, 33 folding leaves. Large 8vo, orig. blue wrappers (covers discolored & rubbed), new stitching. [Japan]: 1854.

First edition of a very rare book. Ōtsuki (1806-62), physician to the shogun, studied in Nagasaki under Siebold, where he learned Western medicine. He popularized vaccination in Japan. “Otsuki also translated unidentified writings of both von Chelius and Georg Friedrich Most, supposedly from Dutch editions, to compose a one-volume work on the treatment of gunshot wounds entitled Juso sagen, published about 1854…That work was the first Japanese book on military surgery of the European school.”–Mestler, A Galaxy of Old... More

[Japan: ca. 1854-55].

An impressively assembled scroll that portrays the second American expedition to Japan (February-March 1854), led by Commodore Perry; much of it is focused on the American vessels that anchored menacingly off the coast. Seven of the nine ships in the American fleet are carefully portrayed, with notes on the estimated numbers of cannons and crewmembers. Steam-powered ships, with black smoke gushing from the stacks and rows of powerful cannons, shocked the Japanese, most of whom had never seen such a demonstration of advanced military technology. The observations in this scroll must have been crucial to inform the... More

Scroll (365 x 5560 mm.), with gold endpaper at beginning, on a wooden roller. [Japan]: at end, in trans.: “this secret information was given by Shichibei Itsuki to Shingobei Saijo in 1769.”

The spear (yari) was one of the primary weapons used in the feudal period of Japan. Many variations of the head of the spear were developed, some for thrusting by foot soldiers and some for slashing, designed for men on horseback.

This finely illustrated scroll describes the teachings of the Oshima ryu (school) of fighting with a spear (sojutsu). The Oshima ryu traces its origins to the 16th... More

28 folding engraved plates. 74; 86; 60; 35 folding leaves. Four vols. Oblong 8vo, orig. patterned wrappers, orig. block-printed title labels on upper covers, new stitching. Tokyo: Government Publication issued under the Author’s name [Yosoda Masayoshi, a pen name for Tanabe], 1869.

First edition in Japanese, translated from an unidentified French text, which, according to the Preface, was issued in 1863, with a sequel in 1867. Tanabe also states that this work includes information gained from the French military mission of 17 men (four officers, ten non-commissioned officers, and two soldiers, led by staff captain Charles Sulpice Jules Chanoine), who... More