One of the Most Important Eighteenth-Century Works on Japan
History of Japan:. Giving an Account of The antient and present State and Government of that Empire; Of Its Temples, Palaces, Castles, and other Buildings; Of Its Metals, Minerals, Trees, Plants, Animals, Birds and Fishes; Of The Chronology and Succession of the Emperors, Ecclesiastical and Secular; Of The Original Descent, Religions, Customs, and Manufactures of the Natives, and of their Trade and Commerce with the Dutch and Chinese. Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam. Written in Hugh Dutch...And translated from his Original Manuscript, never before printed, by J.G. Scheuchzer...With the Life of the Author and an Introduction. To which is added, Part of a Journal of a Voyage to Japan, made by the English in the Year 1673. Illustrated with many Copper Plates.
London: Printed for the Publisher, and sold by Thomas Woodward...and Charles Davis, 1728.
. The History of Japan:. Giving an Account of The antient and present State and Government of that Empire; Of Its Temples, Palaces, Castles, and other Buildings; Of Its Metals, Minerals, Trees, Plants, Animals, Birds and Fishes; Of The Chronology and Succession of the Emperors, Ecclesiastical and Secular; Of The Original Descent, Religions, Customs, and Manufactures of the Natives, and of their Trade and Commerce with the Dutch and Chinese. Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam. Written in Hugh Dutch...And translated from his Original Manuscript, never before printed, by J.G. Scheuchzer...With the Life of the Author and an Introduction. To which is added, Part of a Journal of a Voyage to Japan, made by the English in the Year 1673. Illustrated with many Copper Plates. London: Printed for the Publisher, and sold by Thomas Woodward...and Charles Davis, 1728.
Full Description:
KÆMPFER, Engelbertus. The History of Japan: Giving an Account of The antient and present State and Government of that Empire; Of Its Temples, Palaces, Castles, and other Buildings; Of Its Metals, Minerals, Trees, Plants, Animals, Birds and Fishes; Of The Chronology and Succession of the Emperors, Ecclesiastical and Secular; Of The Original Descent, Religions, Customs, and Manufactures of the Natives, and of their Trade and Commerce with the Dutch and Chinese. Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam. Written in Hugh Dutch...And translated...by J.G. Scheuchzer...To which is added, Part of a Journal of a Voyage to Japan, made by the English in the Year 1673. Illustrated with many Copper Plates. London: Printed for the Publisher, and sold by Thomas Woodward...and Charles Davis, 1728.
First edition, second issue in English. The letterpress title-pages of the second issue were dated 1728, while the engraved title retained the date od 1727. Two folio volumes bound in one (13 3/4 x 9 inches; 340 x 230 mm. [12], lii, 391, [1, blank], [4]; [4], 393-612, [75, Appendix], [1, blank], [2], [11, 2nd Appendix], [1, blank], [4], [6, index] pp. With two title-pages printed in red and black. List of subscribers in Volume I, contents to both volumes, index at end of Volume II, and two appendices in Volume II, including the separately titled appendix on the English voyage to Japan (first included in this edition). Complete with engraved title-page (dated 1727) in Volume I and forty-five engraved plates, of which six are single-page, and the remainder are double-page or folding. Engraved head and tail pieces, and initials.
Full contemporary calf, expertly rebacked preserving spine. Boards double-ruled in gilt. Spine lettered in gilt. Top edge brown, others speckled red. Boards rubbed and bumped. Spine chipped and worn. A bit of offsetting from red title-pages, but otherwise internally very clean. Previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown. Overall a very good copy of this important work.
“Kaempfer was a well known German physician and naturalist with a passion for travelling. Before his arrival in Japan, he had accompanied the Swedish embassy under Louis Fabricius to Persia..., then engaging as surgeon with the Dutch fleet, visited India and Batavia, and at length reached Japan, where he stayed three years collecting material for his work. Here he secured the good will of the authorities so completely that he was allowed to travel where and as he pleased. He returned to Europe in 1693 and published an account of his travels under the title of Amoenitates Exoticae. His History of Japan has long been recognized as the most authoritative account of that country published at the time” (Cox).
Of particular importance in this book are the maps: "Although maps of all kinds topped the list of prohibitions [of things not permitted to leave Japan], Kaempfer managed to smuggle out ten: four of Japan; one each of the cities of Osaka, Kyoto and Nagasaki; two very rare maps of Edo; and a pictorial map covering the land and sea routes from Edo to Nagasaki. In the History, he stressed the difficulties involved in obtaining any plans, particularly of Edo. Yet his description of the intricate layout of Edo castle was to horrify one interpreter who remarked how 'terrible' it was that a European had acquired so much precise information about the seat of the shogunate. Kaempfer's maps of Japan (based on Shinsen dai Nihon zukan, one of the earliest maps to have shown Hokkaido), though considerably modified by Scheuchzer, were to have an enormous influence on generations of European cartographers' (Fathom).
Cox I, p. 322. Wellcome III, p. 376.
HBS 69535.
$8,500.
Price: $8,500.00
Item #69535