Illus. by Kyōsai Kawanabe 河鍋曉齋. Double-page frontispiece illus. printed in color & numerous other illus. (some printed in color). 30 (title printed on yellow paper); 32; 26 folding leaves. Three vols. Small 8vo, orig. semi-stiff blue wrappers, title-slips on upper covers, new stitching. Tokyo & other cities: Mankyukaku 萬笈閣, 1872.

First edition of this rare work; it is complete with the supplementary third volume. Finely illustrated by Kyōsai Kawanabe, it is one of the two earliest books to introduce Western cooking techniques and recipes into Japan (the other is Keigakuo Shujin’s Seiyo ryori shinan, published in the same year). Our... More

Scroll (190 x 3980 mm.), outer front endpaper covered with blue silk, inner endpaper of gold & silver paper, manuscript title label on outside “Meiwa kasai zu” 明和火災図 [“Meiwa Fire illustrated”]. [Japan]: late Edo.

Japanese cities have always been plagued by terrible fires. Regarding Edo, “the wooden construction of all of the city and the narrow lanes of commoner quarters made fire a devastating experience, and it came sufficiently frequently to be called ‘the flowers of Edo.’ Fires were no respecters of status and rank, and when driven by winter winds in the dry season they roared through the city.…In... More