Dainihon Hakuranzu, Tochigi-ken no bu. de AOYAMA, Toyotaro - 1892

1892. AOYAMA, Toyotaro. Dainihon Hakuranzu, Tochigi-ken no bu. [Catalog of the Industrial Exhibition (Japan): Tochigi Prefecture]. 200 engraved plates on 100 leaves. Oblong folio, 320 x 220 mm., bound in contemporary cloth backed boards, rebacked, with part of the original spine laid down, in a new chitsu case. Tokyo: Seikosha, 1890. A spectacular book, with a somewhat misleading title, but which provides a unique vision of Japan at the end of the nineteenth century, not yet in the full throes of its industrial revolution. The 200 superbly engraved plates depict everything from villages, farms, hotels, pawnbrokers, and wine and sauce makers to manure merchants. A rare book, with OCLC listing only the copy in the National Diet Library.