Japan: Travels and Researches Undertaken at the Cost of the Prussian Government.

Hodder and Stoughton.. Second edition.. 1888.. Translated. Many full page black and white wood engravings and 6 original black and white photographs laid down, ix + 543pp, index, 2 large folding coloured maps, preliminarly leaves little foxed, some occasional spotting in text, in particular on the tissue guards, but in the main the text is very clean. Signature of presumably this copy's first owner dated June 1889, Yokohama, recto frontispiece. Professionally rebacked with new endpapers, original backstrip laid down on new spine, folding maps browned in places, closed tears on maps have been repaired with tape, pictorial cloth binding little rubbed and lightly marked, with some very minor loss on upper joint in one place still a very presentable copy. This detailed account of Japan in the 1870s is based on a residence of nearly two years in the country and many travels through the islands of Hondo, Shikoku, Kiushiu and Amakusa (sic) in the years 1874 and 1875. The author had been charged by the Prussian Ministry of Commerce with the task of recording the trade and industry of Japan. His findings on these subjects were published as "The Industries of Japan" in 1889. "But as there can be no doubt that the nature of a country, the historical and social development of its inhabitants, and their relations to other nations, are the basis upon which the form and substance of its commercial and industrial, as well as its intellectual life are unfolded, it seemed advisable first to publish this present work." (From the preface). With the exception of the historical material included all of the information in the book is based on the author's own observations and researches during his time in Japan. .