Collection of Seven Japanese Fairy Tale Books: Momotaro; Shitakiri Suzume; Battle of the Monkey and the Crab; Hanasaki Jiji; Nedzumi No Yome-iri; The Matsuyama Mirror; and The Cub's Triumph
Tokyo: Kobunsha [Takejiro Hasegawa], [1885]. Very Good. Item #50327 Frederic Alan Sharf. Takejiro Hasegawa: Meiji Japan's Preeminent Publisher of Wood-block-illustrated Crepe-paper Books. MA: Peabody Essex Museum, 1994. (11-19pp) Christopher DeCou. Woodblocks in Wonderland: The Japanese Fairy Tale Series. The Public Domain Review, September 3, 2019. Accessed online.
Tokyo: Kobunsha [Takejiro Hasegawa], [1885, 1886, 1887]. Early printings. Collection of seven stab-bound 12mos (18cm); full-color paper wrappers with full-color woodcut illustrations throughout. Minor edge wear; paper toned; no tears. Binding sound; pages clean and unmarked. The Cub's Triumph includes a flap on the interior front cover that opens up to reveal a little fox cub.
Initially published in black and white for local school children during the Meiji era to promote literacy efforts. Famed Japanese publisher Takejiro Hasegawa, using the company name Kobunsha, realized the tourist market for Japanese-made goods and quickly pivoted to offer these books in full-color.
Date range of publication gleaned from a variety of indicators, but primarily the paper used. These are all published on traditional Japanese paper, or "plain paper" made from the bark of the mitsumata tree. Later printings, beginning in 1895, were published on crepe paper. Several books in this collection also indicate the publication place of Minami Sayegicho, which is where Hasegawa lived until 1889. By 1887, Hasegawa had printed 14 of these Fairy Tales and all the titles were in English only on the cover.
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Price: $2,000.00