| Search Antiqbook |
Ask a question or
Order this book
Browse our books
Search our books
Book dealer info
ANON. Yosei hodai Kaikoku Jijitsu Zen
NP, NPub. 1841, Unique Manuscript. Flexible Bds. Manus.24.10 cm.7 text sheets [14Pp]. Ill.: Author[?]. Fine/No Jacket.¶ Manuscript, 24.10 cm. written title slip, bound into flexible boards, 7 text sheets [14Pp] including four ½ sheets [or pages] of brush drawings, and a double page of brush drawings of cannon as a frontispiece [not counted in pagination]. In 1841, the artist-samurai, Watanabe Kazan, wrote a memo to the Shogun's bakufu [bureaucracy ] suggesting that Japan's seacoasts and major coastal cities were unprotected from the guns of foreign war ships, and advocating a plan for protecting them by the use of cannon and mortars in fortresses. Kazan, who was simultaneously a great Japanese style master of the Shijo tradition and a devoted student of "renga-ku" [short for European knowledge], had in fact discovered a weakness which Perry later exploited to open Japan. The response of the Shogun and his Bakufu was to order Kazan to commit ritual suicide, because his memorandum could cause widespread fear and burden the government in carrying out its daily affairs. And as well, because the memo showed a lack of respect for the authorities to carry out their work properly. As a proper member of the governmental system[which all Japanese samurai were, by definition] he carried out his own suicide. After the opening of Japan, and ever since, he has been revered as a national hero, since his fears were completely justified, and his precautions might have precluded the opening of Japan. This manuscript seems to be very much like the one described as causing Kazan's downfall. It reproduces Western arms, to the pattern known in Japan from the 17th century, when they were outlawed, and it shows emplacements in forts along rivers, and in static forts in the sea and harbors. The style in which the weapons are drawn is reminiscent of the drawings made by Shiba Kokan, the eminent Renga-ku master of the later 18th century. I believe that this may be a clandestine copy of that memorandum, from the period, as written by Kazan.~ No manuscript of this name is noted in the bibliography of all Japanese printed books and manuscripts, Kokusho somokuroku, or its supplement, although there are 35 manuscripts which begin with the word Yosei. It is also unnoted in RLIn and OCLC Japanese, BL 1897 and 1910. Checking in the NDL catalog Kokuritsu Kokkai Toshokan Shozo Meijiki Kanko Tosho Mokuroku[The National Diet Library], on the off chance that it might be a Meiji document has also been unsuccessful under both Yosei and Kaikoku. I have not been able to locate any copies like manuscript either inside or outside of Japan. Antiquarian, Fine..
Offered for US$ 50000.00 by: Zita Books - Book number: 000510
See more books from our catalog: Catalog 5. Science and Technology