Japanese Prints

70
296
296. TAKAHASHI, G[oro]. Short Biographies of Emineni
[sic] Japanese in Ancient and Modern Times each with a
characteristic Illustration. Tokyo, Kyushundo, 1890. £2,000
8vo. 2 vols. Original wrappers, string ties, printed title labels to
upper wrappers; both vols. pp. [ii, English text including an
“Advertisement”] + [40] + [ii, Japanese text]; both vols. 10 doublepage
hand-coloured wood-engraved portraits, with ownership
inscriptions to the wrappers in chinese calligraphy of chiang Yee,
who wrote travel books as “The Silent Traveller”; slight soiling to
wrappers, else a near-fine copy.
first editions. Both volumes have the same advertisement stating
that this is the second volume of a run of 10 which would
complement another 10-volume series entitled “The pictorial
descriptions of a Hundred famous places of Japan”. However, the
text and the illustrations in each volume are different. We have been
able to trace only the first volume of the “Eminent Japanese” series
in other libraries (Yale and the British Library) and have been unable
to tell whether the series was ever completed, which makes this set
extremely unusual and interesting.
The biography for each person covers 2 leaves of text before and
after the illustration for that person. The illustrations themselves,
each signed by the Japanese artist, offer “characteristic” portrayals
by setting the person within a scene of importance in their life. The
subjects in the first volume comprise The Emperor nintoku, prince
Shotoku, Sugawara no Michizane, Taira no Masakado, Minamoto
no Yoritomo, Madenokoji fujifusa, Aoto fujitsuna, Murasaki
Shikibu, Iwakura Tomomi and Yui no Shosetsu. The second volume
describes Yamatotake no Mikoto, Jingu Kogu, Takenouchi no
Sukune, Wage no Kiyomaro, Minamoto no Yoshie, Taira no
Shigemori, Hojo Tokimune, Kusunoki Masashige, Kato Kiyamasa
and Saigo Takamori.
Not found in Wenckstern’s Bibliography of the Japanese empire.
297. THOMAS, Edward. Lafcadio Hearn. Constable and
Company ltd. 1912. £150
Small 8vo. publisher’s green cloth, gilt spine; pp. 91 + 5 [ads.],
frontispiece portrait of Hearn; very bright and clean indeed.
first edition, second impression. Scarce. One of many books of
literary biography produced by Thomas during this period, this is
nonetheless a well-researched and sensitively written account of the
life and work of the journalist and short story writer. Thomas is
particularly strong on Hearn’s role in introducing Western readers
to Japanese culture.
297