FAMOUS PEOPLE OF JAPAN (ANCIENT AND MODERN)

Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh, Limited, 1911. Hardcover. VERY GOOD. Previous owner's script signature and "Korea - 1912" to FFEP. 8vo, 6" x 8.875" Reddish-brown cloth-covered boards lightly worn a lighter shade to edges and corners. A tiny bit of fraying to folded under spinecaps, corners a bit nudged. Spine lightly cracked, a bit brittle and you can see where the signatures are sewn in. Back hinge is torn a little and a bit loose but binding still intact. Black lettering to a faintly sunned spine. Top and bottom of boards, each, have three worn gilt debossed horizontal lines with a .75" space between one line and the two edge lines. This design continues from front to back with the spines' lines in black. Worn gilt debossed star-burst-like design with crossed sabre's and bird, with wings spanned, sitting on top of third sword and circle illustration above its head. Text edges are aged, very light markings to top edge. 47 black and white collotype plates; beautiful illustrations and photographs. 230 pp.

Publisher's catalogue ("A List of Books on Japan, etc.") laid in
Clean. Written in the Year of the Boar. "The object of this book is to present in a concise form some information about the famous people of Japan." Although there could be more people of whom to write, the author's aim was to "make the book sufficient for is purpose without being redundant. For purposes of comparison, the proper names in the headings are given in the original ideographs and well as in their transliterated form," (preface). Those written about include : The Emperor Jimmu, Prince Yamatotakeru, the Empress Jingoa, Sakanoe Tamuramaro, Hachimantaro Yoshiie, Minamoto No Yoshitomo, Nichiren, Prince Morinaga, Yamaga Soko, Prince Ito, masters of fencing, famous actors, and many others. An historical summary is given in the beginning pages. "Anecdotes have been included for the reason that they sometimes throw more light on a character of the people referred to than a mere recital of dry biographical facts," (preface).