Search Results: Japan from Downtown Brown Books, ABAA

Tokyo: Fugaku Honsha, 1946. First Edition. Ephemera. Fine. A groundbreaking suite of a dozen woodblock prints published immediately after the Second World War on inferior-quality materials, with images of seldom-depicted rural subjects rendered in sometimes crude but always expressionistic style. The artists participating in this project were some of the best-known of the postwar period: Saito Kiyoshi, Gen Yamaguchi, Wakayama Yasoji, Maekawa Senpan (2 images), Doshun Mori, Kuroki Sadao, Umetaro Azechi, Kawanishi Hide, Maeda Masao, and Junichiro Sekino (2 images). This portfolio of images, which includes a title sheet, an explanatory booklet, twelve original woodblock prints in paper frames, and a ribbon-tied portfolio with a paper label, is sometimes referred to as Picture Notes on Native Customs. The scenes depicted are vignettes of rural life, often from the artists' hometown, that were seldom depicted in formal Japanese art. The inspiration for this portfolio is to both look backwards and… Read More

Tokyo: Burajiru ni Okeru Nihonjin Hattenshi Kanko Iinkai [Publication Committee for the History of Japanese Development in Brazil], 1942. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. A two-volume history of the Japanese in Brazil by a one-time California resident who helped open Brazil for the Japanese. The first Japanese immigrants settled in Brazil in 1908, not coincidentally the year after the Gentleman's Agreement restricted immigration to the United States. The new arrivals mostly pursued coffee cultivation around Sao Paulo. The first volume covers the diplomatic agreements and legal framework for Japanese immigrants in Brazil. The second volume describes the various colonies established, successful businesses, and offers biographies of some pioneers. These volumes were published to coincide with the 2600th anniversary of Japan, a milestone used to stoke the flames of nationalism in the early 1940s. These books were reprinted in the 1950s, when Japanese immigration to Brazil boomed again, and then… Read More

[Kyoto]: Yakichi Hachioya (sometimes Hachidaiya) [八大屋弥吉], 1863. Ephemera. Near fine. The third edition of this woodblock map of Kyoto, at the time the Imperial seat (the emperor moved to Tokyo in 1868). The map depicts a traditional street grid for the center of the city, with relief shown pictorially around the map edges. North is to the left, as is typical in Japanese maps of the time. 40-1/4 by 28 inches (103 by 71 cm), printed on four joined sheets. There are (at least) two issues of this map, one of which denotes burned areas with red handcoloring. That is probably a later 1864 issue, reflecting the damage done in the Great Genji Fire of August 1864. A near fine copy with a short tear in one margin. The printing on the lower left sheet is somewhat lighter than the rest of the map. In a loose printed folded paper wrapper with the title and a delicate decorative border. The era (Bunkyu) is printed with a space below, possibly to supply the year, but that space is still empty on this copy.

Tokyo: Daigakukan, 1906. First Edition. Trade paperback. Very good. A little known Meiji-era novel narrated by a young Japanese immigrant in the United States. The narrator seems to have come from the class of poor young people with knowledge of the modern world but little chance of advancement in tradition-bound Japan. He offers opinions and philosophical musings on life, making this a combination of travelog, immigration guide, and sardonic look at 20th century life. A sense of the writer's attitude can be found in his nom de plume, which translates to "returnee to the heavenly shores," although the character for heaven (天) can also mean imperial. From the tone of the book, the double entendre heavenly/imperial is offered sarcastically. For more on this and similar books, see "Meiji go hanki no tobei netsu: America no ryuukou" by Tachikawa Kenji (Shirin, Vol. 69, no. 3, May 1986). OCLC: 672445413 (National Diet Library). First edition. A very good or better copy but for a crack on the back… Read More

Milwaukie, OR: Dark Horse Books, 2004. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine. An oversized book reproducing examples of Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo artwork from throughout his then twenty-year career. Many of the drawings are previously unpublished. With a 32-page color section of Sakai's paintings, many of which are cover illustrations. Usagi Yojimbo, an anthropomorphic samurai saga with a rabbit as the main character, is one of the longest-running independent comic series, with more than 200 comic issues published, collected into some 40 graphic novel volumes. The author-illustrator Stan Sakai was born in Japan and emigrated to the US as a young boy. He is one of the most successful Asian American comic artists. A Netflix CGI series, Samurai Rabbit, based on Usagi Yojimbo characters, premiered on Netflix in April 2022. 200 pages. 9-1/4 by 12-1/4 inches. First edition (first printing). A fine copy signed with a particularly good drawing at the front. Sakai sketched the work first in pencil and then in… Read More

Tokyo: Konan Shoin, 1955. Hardcover. Near fine. A reference guide to American cotton fabric, with 230 samples pasted in. The purpose of the book was to provide Japanese cloth manufacturers with a reference book of Western fabric styles, names, and specifications to help Japanese factories sell to the American market. The book is printed left-to-right in the Western fashion, with cloth names in English but most of the text in Japanese. The cloth swatches measure roughly 2 by 1-1/4 inches. [14], 250, 8 pages. Uncommon. OCLC (no. 672491077) locates a single copy, at the National Diet Library. First edition. A near fine copy in a very good publisher's cardstock slipcase.

Tokyo: Rokko Shuppanbu, 1943. First Edition. Trade paperback. Very good. A very scarce wartime history of the Japanese in California that argues that the internment of Japanese and Japanese Americans was a symptom of the same pervasive anti-Japanese attitudes among Americans that had contributed to the Second World War. The author, according to Yuji Ichioka writing in Before Internment (p. 263), was an "Issei who had lived in California for many years, working as a newspaperman for Japanese immigrant newspapers... The outbreak of the Pacific War found Ebina in Tokyo because he had returned to Japan in November 1941. At the beginning he was employed part-time by NHK Radio to write anti-American radio scripts and served as a commentator on the arrest and detention of Issei leaders and the eventual mass internment of the entire West Coast Japanese California." Ebina's December 1943 book, "Kariforunia to Nihonjin...rehashed the history of anti-Japanese racism in California and attributed the internment… Read More

Tokyo: Chuokoron-shinsha, 2020. First Edition. Hardcover. Fine/Fine. In addition to being a prolific novelist, Murakami has done extensive translation work, including bringing many American writers like Raymond Carver, Raymond Chandler, Ursula LeGuin, Truman Capote, J. D. Salinger, and Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby) into Japanese. Translation, with running, is one of his main avocations, something he does for fun. This is a translation of John Grisham's Camino Island, a book about Fitzgerald manuscripts stolen from the Princeton Library. A small number of copies signed by Murakami were offered to bookstores in Japan and this is one of those, signed in Japanese above a rubber stamp of Murakami's name in English. 413, [3] pages. 5-1/2 by 7-3/4 inches. First edition (first printing, with the publication date and "初版" on the second line of the colophon). A fine hardcover copy in a fine dust jacket and obi (wrap-around band). Signed by Murakami on the front free endpaper.

Washington DC: (n.p.), 1855. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. Commodore Perry's correspondance written during his historic two-year expedition to Japan, which led to the opening of the island nation to the West. This is the first publication of Perry's dispatches detailing his observations on Japan at a time when it was very little known in the United States. This collection of Perry's dispatches, with some correspondence from the Pierce and Filmore administrations, is titled in full, "Message of the President of the United States, transmitting a report of the Secretary of the Navy, in compliance with a resolution of the Senate of December 6, 1854, calling for correspondence, &c., relative to the naval expedition to Japan", Senate, 33d Congress, 2d Session, Ex. Doc. No. 34. 195 pages; no plates, as issued. First edition (first printing). Pages somewhat foxed; the original publisher's purple cloth faded at the spine and eroded at the edges and in a few spots on the cover. With the pencilled… Read More

Yokohama: (the author / Tokyo Insatsu Kabushiki Kaisha Yokohama Bunsha), 1900. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. A privately printed version of the diary kept by Otani Kahyoe, the president of the Japan Central Tea Traders' Association. "Mr. Otani visited America and Europe in 1899-1900, when he represented both the Tokyo and Yokohama Chambers of Commerce at the Philadelphia Commercial Convention" (William Harrison Ukers, All About Tea, vol. 2, p. 224). The book provides brief day-by-day accounts of his travels, the scenery, business meetings and dinners he attended, with regular mentions (without much description) of tea shops and tea merchants he visited along the way. Otani was a merchant in Yokohama and worked as "a buyer for Smith, Baker and Co., one of the large Western merchant houses active in the city. Apparently with financial backing from this firm, he became an export merchant himself in 1868, and he rose to become the leading figure in the Yokohama tea export trade by 1890"-Edward… Read More

New York: Moffat, Yard & Company, 1908. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. The book that introduced the game of go to the English-speaking world. Smith's book drew heavily on the articles on the game by Oskar Korschelt, which were only published in a German journal of Far Eastern studies. Korschelt learned the game from Murase Shobo, the best player in the 1870s. Smith credits his knowledge of go to Mokichi Nakamura, a Japanese American immigrant in New York, and Jihei Hashiguchi, the editor of The Japan Current, in Seattle, Washington. Smith's book has been reprinted and reissued many times in the century since it first appeared. Go, like chess, has relatively simple rules but is one of the most complex games to play. Like chess, training supercomputers to play go is a key test of AI capability. About Mokichi Nakamura, Smith's primary Japanese-American informant, not much is known. He registered for the draft at the beginning of the First World War, at which time he was living and… Read More

Seattle (Shiatoru): Hokubei nihonjinkai shogyo kaigisho (North American-Japanese Chamber of Commerce), 1932. Third Edition. The third edition, after much shorter versions published in 1928 and 1929. This is a promotional publication printed at a Japanese-language press in Seattle, intended to encourage pan-Pacific trade through the port of Seattle. Chapters are devoted to manufacturing, commercial business, the current state of Seattle trade, trade with Japan, and Seattle's municipal administration, education, and media outlets. Notably, the English introduction from the Seattle mayor makes no mention of the local Japanese community, emphasizing only mutual trade between Seattle and Japan. The half-tone plates depict views of Seattle and accommodations for Japanese merchants. The supporting ads, mostly at the back, however, are from many Japanese-owned businesses in the region. [6], [2], 110, 2, [1], 2, [23] pages, plus 14 pages of half-tone photographic plates, including one folding plate and a… Read More

Los Angeles: Rafu Shinposha, 1930. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good. This contains essays, speeches, and commentaries on anti-Japanese exclusion and U.S.-Japan relations by Japanese immigrant leaders and white Americans. The appendix describes origins of various historical matters and Issei social customs, as well as pioneering individuals and organizations in the mainland and Hawaii."-Annotated Bibliography of Japanese Americans in Encyclopedia of Japanese Descendants in the Americas. "Special attention is placed on Japanese pioneers in the United States in various fields of endeavor; also on various phases of the anti-Japanese movement in California."-A Bibliography of Historical Materials in the Japanese Language on the West Coast Japanese by William Magistretti (Pacific Historical Review, March 1943). "A work which covers the exclusion movement within the context of U.S.-Japan relations. Includes translations [into Japanese] by V. S. McClatchy and other exponents of exclusion as well as the… Read More

Kobe, Japan: Beikoku Haken Denkyoshi Jimukyoku [American Board of Missionaries], 1883. First Edition. Good. A Christian missionary provides an illustrated travelog of the Holy Land, Europe, and the United States for Japanese audiences. Gulick, born in Hawaii (1830-1923), was stationed in Japan from 1870 to 1892. In the early 1880s, he made an extended tour of the West, speaking widely on the efforts to convert Japanese to Christianity. This book, apparently only published in Japanese, introduces the West to Japanese converts and potential converts. The book is illustrated with ten engraved or woodblock plates (three folding), plus several in-text illustrations. The most affecting image is block print of an Arab woman, which makes good use of negative space. [2], 8, 131, [1] pages. Not in OCLC. First edition. A good copy, bound in paste paper over boards, with a cloth spine. Text block nearly detached from binding, thus a fair to good copy of a very scarce book.

Kyoto: Bunsen Shoin, 1929. A book tracing the history of US-Japanese relations focusing on the growth of anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States and the legal and diplomatic efforts to exclude and discriminate against Japanese immigrants. The author then turns to the growing possibility of a war in the Pacific between the two countries. The book fits into a nationalist, imperialist narrative that was growing in Japan throughout the 1920s which argued for the inevitability of a US-Japanese conflict (several Western scholars also published books on the likelihood of a Pacific War during this time). Tamura's work is very little known, with just one library holding (in Japan), despite this copy being a fifth printing, published four years after the first. The cover of the book has a Japanese flag on the front and a map of the Pacific Rim on the back, with lines showing distances between key locations. [6], [2], 169, [2] pages. OCLC: 703696048 (National Diet Library). Fifth printing. Old… Read More

New York: Rizzoli, 1987. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. A color photo monograph on one of the masterpieces of Japanese architecture. Over 200 illustrations; 192 in color. 267 pages. 10-1/2 by 13-1/2 inches. Translated from the Japanese. First US edition. A near fine copy in a fine dust jacket. Boards slightly splayed (bowed out).

Osaka and Edo: Kawachiya Kihe et al. and Eirakuya Toshiro, 1837. Second Edition. Trade paperback. Good. This is the second edition of one of the crowning achievements of Japanese Edo-period mapmaking, a five-color woodblock atlas of the provinces of Japan. The maps are printed in light blue, dark blue, black, yellow, and red and mark administrative divisions (villages, provinces, counties), roads, stations, historical places, shrines, and temples. This atlas was adapted by Tokei Ichikawa from the large and accurate map of Japan made by Sekisui Nagakubo in 1773. This format, first published in 1828, was intended for desktop use according to the introduction. Most of the provinces are depicted on two facing sheets, with one province per map. The scale varies, with each map resized to fit it in the allotted space. For more information, see the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan catalog record: "It is considered the masterpiece of atlases of Japan's political divisions."… Read More

Leide, The Netherlands: Hotei Publishing, 2000. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. A pioneering publication which deals with the most famous series-the Seishu gishi den (1847-48) and its sequel the Seishu gishin den (1848)-of the forty-seven masterless samuri (ronin) by Utagawa Kuniyoshi"-dust jacket. 191 pages. Illustrated in color. 10 by 12 inches. First edition (no indication of later printings). A near fine to fine copy in a like dust jacket.

New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill and Heibonsha, 1972. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine/Near fine. Volume 19 in the Heibonsha Survey of Japanese Art. 156 pages. Illustrated with 141 black-and-white illustrations. Translated from the Japanese. First US edition (stated). Near fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.

Kofuku, Gifu Prefecture, Japan: (the author), 1895. First Edition. Very good. A travelog of the author's trip to the United States to visit the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Sugishita went on to be a banker and member of the House of Representatives in Japan. This is a scarce 19th century Japanese view of the United States. [6], [3], [1], 29 leaves (folded, printed on both recto and verso). 5 by 7-3/8 inches. With two introductions (one by the author and a printed calligraphy introduction by Saionji Kinmochi, later Prime Minister of Japan) and three reproductions of drawings as plates at the beginning. OCLC: 672478069 (National Diet Library). A very good copy, in the original string-tied wrappers. Minor worm damage to cover, partially affecting the title.