Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2019 Issue

Japanese and Chinese Books, Manuscripts and Scrolls from Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller

Japanese & Chinese books, manuscripts, & scrolls.

Japanese & Chinese books, manuscripts, & scrolls.

Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, has created a catalogue of Japanese & Chinese Books, Manuscripts, and Scrolls. We can add to this that most of these items easily qualify for the label "antiquarian." Most are written in Japanese/Chinese characters, so reading will be a challenge to those not immersed in the language. However, for a great many, just as with many fine western books, it is the artwork that makes them so desirable. There are many manuscripts and hand-written scrolls filled with skilled drawings. And then, some items are in Latin languages, such as a series of items from San Francisco's Grabhorn Press published for the Book Club of California in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Here are a few of these selections.

 

We begin with one of those items you don't need to be able to read to appreciate. The title is "Shozoku shuyo sho" (costumes of the court comprehensively gathered and explained). Hill attributes this to the mid-Edo period. The Edo ran from 1603-1868. The text draws from three earlier texts whose timing places this in the 1700s. There are many illustrations in color, some in black and white. It is divided into five volumes. The first focuses in detail on the appropriate costumes for the emperor. They cover formal ceremonies and religious events. Detailed illustrations display such items of clothing as headgear, belts, jackets, trousers, inner wear, socks, shoes, fans, jewelry, and scepters. Later volumes work their way down in level of importance of people. The second covers the emperor "emeritus," crown price, other princes. Then there come costumes for attending aristocrats, then guards, and finally royal children. Hill notes that the "color illustrations are of very great complexity and beauty," with "ample use of gold." Item 4. Priced at $15,000.

 

Next we have a scroll with 61 color illustrations. I would not call these beautiful, as I might those from the last item, but that reflects on the subject matter rather than the artist's skill. Item 15 is an illustrated depiction of the Dissection of Heijiro. Heijiro was a thief, a recidivist who stole one time too many. He was executed in 1783. This was still a time when dissection of human bodies was frowned upon, but Heijiro had the honor of becoming a pioneer in the field in Japan. Hill writes that this scroll is "an important record of the most famous of all early human dissections to take place in Japan; these dissections materially changed the Japanese knowledge of human anatomy." At the time, Japan was relying on Chinese teachings to study human anatomy. The dissection of Heijiro played an important role in changing the orientation of the study of anatomy and medicine from old beliefs to those based on actual observation. These are detailed illustrations of body parts in various stages of dissection. They aren't pretty, but they are real life, or perhaps, real death. For example, we get a look at Heijiro's face and head as it was in life, but then with the flesh removed from the face, and then with the skullcap removed. The chest cavity is opened to display ribs and muscles, and then those are removed to show internal organs. Such exposed views are continued right down to the feet. The explanations of what we see were written by Genshun Koishi, a physician interested in western medicine, while the chief artist was Ranshu Yoshimura. $40,000.

 

Here is another anatomical scroll, but this one is focused on the human eye. You may think this scroll is watching you. It depicts nearly 200 pairs of eyes, suffering from various diseases. Eye diseases were common in the late Edo period in Japan due to malnutrition and infectious disease. This manuscript is typical of doctors treating eye diseases in Japan at the time, and is derived from Chinese medicine. The first images show eye diseases such as cataracts and inflammation, followed by pairs of eyes showing their structural relationships to the "five wheels." Those are five internal organs - heart, lung, liver, kidney, and spleen. Then there are relationships to the "eight boundaries," and from these, appropriate therapy can be determined. This is followed by pharmaceutical recipes, using such ingredients as gypsum, camphor, deer musk, herbs, ground oyster shells, mint, orange rinds, rhubarb, and animal horns. I have serious doubts about the science here or the efficacy of these remedies, but it probably wasn't any worse than the bloodletting going on in the West at the time. Item 6. $6,500.

 

This is a pair of finely illustrated scrolls that are very Japanese in design, but of great interest to American collectors. They illustrate the second visit to Japan of American Commodore Matthew Perry in 1854. Neither side knew very much about the other, and Perry certainly wasn't welcomed to their homeland by the Japanese. The United States wanted to open Japan to international trade, while Japan wanted to be left alone. Ultimately, Perry's warships convinced Japan of the benefits of trade. These scrolls depict some of the machinery on Perry's ships, such as a telegraph transmitter, a furnace, cannon, and steam engine. There is a miniature locomotive Perry brought as a gift. The Japanese were unfamiliar with trains. Perry and his Chief of Staff, Henry Adams, are also drawn. The five warships are depicted offshore, three rowboats filled with American sailors, a cannon, and America flag, four Americans in uniform, many American tools and armaments, and more. Item 42. $25,000.

 

Next is an album of drawings, but these are much prettier than dissected body parts or diseased eyeballs. Item 34 is an album of morning glory drawings, 62 pages of them from the late Edo period. Hill tells us that morning glories were brought to Japan from China, and were at first used for medicinal purposes. However, they soon became appreciated for their beauty, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, there were morning glory booms, similar to the tulip mania of 17th century Holland. Most of these drawings are in full color, with each labeled. The blossoms are shown in various stages of development, from buds to full bloom to wilting flowers. $9,500.


Jonathan A. Hill Bookseller may be reached at 646-827-0724 or jonathan@jonathanahill.com. The website is www.jonathanahill.com.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Buzz Aldrin's FLOWN Apollo 11 Crew-Signed NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Cover. $15,000 to $20,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Lunar Surface Flown Mission Emblem Presented to Tom Stafford by John Young. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Extensive Chronology of Spacecraft From Apollo to Skylab, Signed by a Member of Every Crewed Apollo Flight and the Commanders of Each Skylab Mission. $5,000 to $8,000.

Review Search

Archived Reviews