Perry and the black ships. - [Shinhan Otsue-bushi].

Tokyo? [185-?]. 18x12cm publisher's colour woodcut cover and contents list inside, woodcut illustrations throughout; 14 leaves including cover and final blank. A well used copy carefully repaired with recent stitching and the last bank leaf laid down; not bad for a flimsy popular song book. ¶ Otsue-bushi are popular songs that were everywhere from the 17th until the late 19th century. Once past that simple explanation I was as lost in definitions of order, genera, species, as I am faced with a page of Wittgenstein. I leave the rest to you.The point to this copy is, for me, the first song: a gentleman being entertained or exasperated by the antics of an American dressed in a uniform provided by the imagination of, and fuzzy descriptions given to, the first artists of kawaraban (news sheets) illustrating the American crew of Perry's blackships. This anchors us to 1854 when the Americans came ashore and mixed with the locals. By law all these song books are rare; I found no mention of this one anywhere.

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