RARE BOOKS IN JAPAN For collectible books

RBIJ

Archives

e-mail site map home about

These pages show some of the items I have sold here in the past. I may have duplicates of some of them, or be able to lay my hands on another copy, but basically they should be taken as representative of the kind of material I can get hold of, rather than of items currently in stock.

1. Older Japanese Books

The material in this section is all in Japanese or kanbun/kambun (Sino-Japanese).

Sample

These figures are part of an illustration of the Seven Lucky Gods (Shichifukujin), from a large book (337 pages thick) for children, published in 1792. It was used to give a basic education to children aged eight years old and upwards in the terakoya, or temple schools, in which the common people were educated in those days. The teachers were Buddhist priests, Shinto monks, physicians, or sometimes just anyone of sufficient age and venerableness to be considered a sensei (teacher).

Click anywhere on this picture or text to see more of this book and many others from the Edo and Meiji periods.

2. Modern Japanese First Editions

The books in this section are all in Japanese.

Japanese literature in translation is included in section 5, below.

Sample

Murakami Haruki, Hitsuji wo Meguru Bohken (A Wild Sheep Chase). Kodansha, October 15, 1982. First edition.

The first of Murakami's novels to be translated into English, preceded by the novella Pinball 1973 and Hear The Wind Sing, a collection of short stories.

Japan has not yet caught on fully to Murakami's popularity in the West, and it is possible to buy first editions of most of his works in the original Japanese for around the same price as the English translations - sometimes even cheaper.

Click anywhere on this image or text to see MORE...

3. Western Books in Japanese Translation

The books in this section are all in Japanese.

Sample

Thomas Hardy, Hakumei no Judo (Jude the Obscure), translated by Uchida Seiichi (Kaizousha, Taisho 14, i.e. 1925). First edition in Japanese. Original cloth spine and paper boards. 695 pages of text, plus introduction and notes, etc. Octavo. Very good (slightly shaken, a little rubbing to spine and boards, a bit of browning on endpapers and a few pages of text, but overall a nice, bright copy). Hardy had a huge impact in Japan, and very few English novels - among them his Tess and Bronte's Wuthering Heights - surpass Jude the Obscure as a seminal influence on the darker elements of modern Japanese literature. 10 holding libraries in Japan.

Click anywhere on this image or text to find a range of first editions of Western writers in Japanese translation.

4. Japanese Manga

The material in this section is all in Japanese.

Sample

Tezuka Osamu, Hinotori (Fire Bird/Phoenix) Gekkan Manga Shounen, 1976-1981. Nine volumes (complete). This is the second edition (and the first complete edition). The first five volumes (of which I also have a complete set) were previously published by COM Meisaku Comics. This is a mixed set of first and later printings of this edition.

Click anywhere on this image or text to see more items in this category.

5. Books about Japan and Translations from Japanese

The material in this section is mainly in English. Some of it is in other Western languages.

A few works are in both Japanese and English or another Western language.

Sample

Zoe Kincaid, Kabuki: The Popular Stage of Japan. Macmillan (London, 1925). First edition. 25 x 18 cm. (10 x 7 inches).

The dust jacket has several closed tears, including one which has eaten the top half of the first "K" of "kabuki" on the spine. Overall, though, it is a serviceable example of an attractive dust jacket. The book itself is very good, with just a bit of foxing to the bibliography and a few scattered spots of foxing elsewhere. Not a particularly scarce book, but uncommon with the dust jacket.

Books like this, in fragile dust jackets, are stored and sold with protective covers (removed for photograph).

Click anywhere on this image or text to see more books in this category.

6. Special Feature: Japanese Militarism

The material in this section is in both Japanese and English.

Sample

During the first half of the 20th century Japan was an astonishing mix of traditional and modern attitudes. Looming above all else was the spectre of militarism. This picture is one of hundreds taken from a periodical which first came out in 1913 and was published for many years (this set was published in 1932). Click anywhere on this picture or text to take a closer look at these journals and see other works from, or relating to, this period.

e-mail site map home about