Isoho monogatari [Aesop’s Fables].
12 columns per page, 21 characters per column. Text block: 233 x 170 mm. 28; 29; 40 folding leaves. Three vols. Large 8vo (277 x 192 mm.), orig. persimmon-stained wrappers (wrappers somewhat worn), new stitching. [Probably Kyoto]: according to Kawase, “mid-Genna”(ca. 1620).
One of the great rarities of Japanese movable type printing; according to Kawase, this is the second-earliest printing of Aesop’s Fables in kanji and hiragana characters. All movable type editions of this text are very rare; WorldCat lists no copy preceding the 1659 woodblock edition.
“Western books were first imported to Japan by Portuguese missionaries, who printed copies... More