Joyu Nana
Tokyo, Japan: Shinseisha, 1903. Very Good. Item #33778
Tokyo, Japan: Shinseisha, [1903]. First Japanese Translation. Octavo (21.5cm); illustrated wraps featuring a cover sketch of Nana by nihonga artist Hyakusui Hirafuku; 177,37pp; photographic illustration of Zola and one sketch of Nana copied from an English illustration. Covers a bit soiled with a short tear along bottom edge; old binding holes visible, some loss to spine; brief coloration infill; binding sound; occasional minor foxing to interior, else unmarked. Very Good.
Kafu Nagai's translation of Emile Zola's 1880 novel Nana illustrates not only his own fascination with French literature and culture but also highlights a much wider cultural exchange beginning in the Meiji era, exemplified by "Japonisme" in Europe, and further influenced by Nagai's later writing. From the National Diet Library's digital collection "Modern Japan and France: Adoration, Encounter, and Interaction," "A large number of writers, artists and journalists visited France especially after World War I as a result of being influenced by NAGAI Kafu (1879-1959) who visited France in 1907... Although first filled with fascination and adoration for France, before long they were faced with the more profound, true essence of France, and they were then left swaying between acceptance and rejection when faced with the deviation between their infatuation and reality."
Verne, Dumas, and Hugo were all translated into Japanese in this era, but Zola was highly influential to Nagai and this story of the high-class courtesan clearly stayed with Nagai, as life in the demimonde would be a major theme of his work for the rest of his career. This collection includes an abridgement of Nana, the short novel L’Inondation, and a critique "Emīru Zora to Sono Shōsetsu." We locate two holdings in OCLC as of April, 2026, Ohio State only in the US.
National Diet Library, Japan. "Modern Japan and France: Adoration, Encounter, and Interaction." 2014. Accessed online.
Price: $1,800.00