Author: Lindley Murray.
Title: [Eigo Kaitei] An English Spelling-Book, with reading lessons, for beginners at the school Kaiseidzio in Yedo. First edition.
Description: Yedo. The 2. year of Kei-ou. (Tokyo, 1866). 18x12cm publisher's wrapper, without title label. Thoroughly annotated by a bored student on the covers, inside and out, the first blank and half title, at the very end and the back blank; clean from the title page on. What a canny colleague called evocative and still rather good. ¶ The first English spelling book published in Japan according to Ishihara Chisato who announced in 1980 ( Lindley Murray [Eigo Kaitei and Lindley Murray's Spelling Book] ) that it is a slightly modified version of Part I of Murray's 'An English Spelling Book' from a copy of the 45th edition (Baudry, Paris 1839) then owned by the Tokugawa government school.With all of these handy lessons for beginners in a new language I wonder how any Japanese learnt enough English to hold a sensible conversation about anything.Worldcat only found, for me, Kyoto U's 1867 reprint without the name of the school.Note that the book opens right to left.

Keywords: language education children school text books social sciences c19th Japan reform progress linguistics