Asia / Japan & Far East

UKHTOMSKY (UCHTOMSKIJ), Esper Esperovich and Hermann BRUNNHOFER (translator). Orientreise seiner kaiserlichen Hoheit des Grossfürsten-Thronfolgers Nikolaus Alexandrowitsch von Russland, 1890-1891.
Leipzig, F.A. Brockhaus, 1894-1899. 2 volumes. 4to. With engraved portrait of Nicholas, 7 photogravures, 541 wood engravings after drawings and photographs and 5 chromolithographed maps. Publisher's cloth, richly blocked in black, gold and grey, gilt edges. [4], 476; [4], 482 pp. Full description

UTAGAWA KUNIMARO. Nyogo ga shima engi no irifune. [A treasure ship embarking at the Isle of Women].
[Japan], 1848-1854. 3 volumes. 22.2 x 15 cm. Volume 1: with a full-page woodcut illustration of 3 cranes (on the title-page?) on the inside of the front wrapper, 8 double-page woodcut illustrations showing erotic scenes, and a full-page woodcut illustration of 3 turtles. Volume 2: with a full-page illustration (on the title-page?) of pine needles and bamboo, 5 double-page woodcut illustrations showing erotic scenes, and a full-page woodcut illustration of plum blossoms. Volume 3: with a full-page illustration (of two pans on the title-page?), 4 double-page woodcut illustrations showing erotic scenes, and a full-page illustration of a table with a plant next to a draught screen. All illustrations are beautifully hand-coloured and set within a printed black frame. Original decorated paper wrappers (showing radiating suns in dark blue and blue and orange) in the traditional Japanese fukurotoji manner (double leaves with the fold at the fore-edge, each double leaf printed from a single woodblock on the 2 outside pages with the title and leaf numbers on the fold, stabbed and oversewn with yellow thread through 4 holes without a spine), the front and back wrappers folded in at all 4 edges, the first and last printed leaves pasted down to the wrappers, publishers manuscript title-label on the front wrapper. 3, 16; 16; 16 pp. Full description

VALIGNANO, Alessandro and Luís FRÓIS. Copia di due lettere annue scritte dal Giapone del 1589. & 1590. L'una dal P. Viceprovinciale al P. Alessandro Valignano, l'altra dal P. Luigi Frois al P. Generale della Compagnia di Giesu. Et dalla Spagnuola nella Italiana lingua tradotte dal P. Gasparo Spitilli della Compagnia medesima. ... Con licentia de' superiori.
Rome, Luigi Zanetti, 1593. Small 8vo (15 x 10.5 cm). Limp sheepskin parchment (ca. 1700?). 125, [3 blank] pp. Full description

[VOC - WIC]. Nederlandsche reizen, tot bevordering van den koophandel, na de meest afgelegene gewesten des aardkloots. ... Met plaaten. Eerste[-veertiende of laatste] deel.
Amsterdam, Peterus Conradi; Harlingen, W. van der Plaats, 1784-1787. 14 volumes bound as 6. 8vo. With 2 engraved folding maps, 1 engraved folding city plan and 61 engraved plates (56 folding) including many topographic views. Uniform half tree calf (ca. 1820?), gold-tooled spines. Full description

WICKEVOORT CROMMELIN, H.S.M. van. Een herlevend volk: schets van de Japanners en hun land.
Haarlem, H.D. Tjeenk Willink, 1895. 8vo. Original publisher's decorated green cloth. VIII, 206 pp. Full description

ZHU XI (CHU HSI). [In Korean:] Sohak eonhae [In Chinese:] Xiaoxue jizhu [= Elementary learning].
[Korea], [1744?]. Folio (32.5 x 21.5 cm). With the pages printed in pairs (each page 17 x 10 characters) from 2-page woodblocks, each in a frame of thick rules, with thin rules between the columns, the title and leaf number between the pages on the fore-edge fold, with 2 decorations (4 leaves in white on black above the title and below the leaf number). Printed on Asian (probably paper mulberry bark) paper, with clear chainlines (about 20 mm apart) and laidlines (about 2.1 mm apart), with the text in a mixture of hanja (Chinese characters) and hangul (the Korean alphabet). Contemporary Korean spineless wrappers with an embossed diaper pattern (made from interwoven diagonal triple lines) on the inside (mostly covered by the paste-down), side-stitched and oversewn through 5 holes, with manuscript title on the front wrapper and the spine edge. 66 double ll. Full description