Author: KANO RYO.
Title: [Title in Japanese:] Rangaku hitori an’nai. [= Guide to Dutch studies].[Tokyo?], Shimogakudo, [ca. 1856]. Small 8vo. Japanese introduction to the Dutch language, comprising 37 printed and 1 blank double leaves (with the fold at the fore-edge) printed from 37 woodblocks (35 double-page plus the first and last single-page), with the first double leaf (with the title-page) and the last double leaf (blank) serving as a paste-downs. With a second copy of the double-leaf with the title-page, loosely inserted. Side stitched and oversewn, with the original publisher’s yellow wrappers (without any label) and a contemporary wrap-around sleeve (fukuro), preserved in a brown cloth slip-case in Japanese style.
Description: [1], 15, 10, 10, [1], [1 blank] ll.Japanese-Dutch manual or guide intended for Japanese people who wish to use Dutch in commercial trade. “Rangaku” means “Dutch studies” and “hitori an’nai” means “guide”. Intended as an aid to reading, writing and speaking. After the title-page, the first part gives a four-page introduction, then presents the Latin alphabet in two forms: one like a 19th-century roman printing type (capitals and lowercase) and the other like 19th-century script handwriting (capitals and lowercase), with the corresponding Japanese characters to indicate the pronunciation. It also presents roman and arabic numerals; the pronunciation of vowels, consonants and various syllables; some simples words; punctuation; symbols for weights, measures, monetary units and other symbols, marks and abbreviations; the names of months, seasons and four elements; names and signs of zodiac figures and planets. The second part presents more complicated words with Japanese translations, and the third part about 150 one- or two-line phrases in Dutch, often dividing words into separate syllables (with some words misspelled or arbitrarily divided at the end of a line). Waseda University Library has two versions of this manual, both printed from the same woodblocks. The present one matches bunko 08 C0560, which gives no place of publication or date, but Waseda’s description gives under “imprint” a three-character name (xià xué táng) that Google Translate renders as “Shimogakudo”. The other version, ho 10 01917, printed from the same woodblocks, has one additional page at the end giving publication details: Edo [= Tokyo], Izumi Hanbee, Ansei 3 [= 1856]. Each copy of the title-page shows two Japanese owner’s red ink-stamped seals (inkans or hankos), one above right (red on white) and the other below left (white on red), all with rounded corners and their texts in seal characters, in the bound-in title-page: rectangular with a single column of 2 characters (upper right) and square with two columns of 1 and 3 characters(?) (lower left); in the loosely inserted title-page: rectangular with 2 columns of 4 and 4(?) characters (upper right) and rectangular with 1 and 3(?) characters (lower right). The loosely inserted title-page has a third stamp on the back, rectangular with rounded corners, with a single column of 3 kanji(?) characters (red on white). With a few minor worm holes, one slightly affecting the border of the bound-in title-page and some other pages, and some minor water stains in the margins and the last (blank) leaf, but generally in fine condition.l www.wul.waseda.ac.jp (under bunko 08 C0560: see ho 10 01917 for the 1856 ed.); cf. Martin J. Heijdra, “At the shores of the sky”, in: Polyglot translators, pp. 62-75, at pp. 74-75 (1856 ed.); not in WorldCat.

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