GENJI MONOGATARI
Yokohama, Tokyo and Osaka: Z. P. Maruya & Co., Limited, [1894]. Second Edition, Second Printing. Octavo, xvii, [1], 279, [1] pages, [2] ads; In Very Good condition. Bound in publisher's deep red cloth, gilt and black stamping to front board and spine, blind stamp to rear board. Light shelfwear.
Sidney Gulick copy, with his bookplate to the front pastedown, purple ink stamp to title page, matching label pasted to spine, ink ownership to verso of front free endpaper, dated Oct 1897. Sparse pencil marginalia, primarily to introduction.
With a beautiful tipped-in two-page hand-illustrated plate of Murasaki. Plate with some light offsetting from itself.
Leaf in rear with recto colophon in Japanese and verso in English, advertising The Japanese Library No. 1 Chiushingura, Third Edition.
Preface dated Cambridge, Nov. 1881. This is the 1894 printing, being published on November 28, Meiji 27 per the Japanese colophon. The second edition was printed in 1882, followed 12 years later by this second printing.
Shelved case 2.
1375955
Shelved Dupont Bookstore
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NOTES
The first edition is common in institutions, as to be expected of a London printing. OCLC records only 7 copies of the second edition, first printing and 4 of this second printing, three of which are in Japan. The second edition was the first edition in English published in Japan.
The Tale of Genji, also known as Genji Monogatari is a classic work of Japanese literature written in the early 11th century by the noblewoman, poet, and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu. "The first book-length rendition of the Genji into English is an abridged one, containing only 17 of the 54 chapters, that was initially published in London in 1882. Translator Suyematz Kenchio (now known as Suematsu Kencho), an attache to the Japanese legation studying at Cambridge, had a quite pragmatic goal, namely to improve Japans status as a nation by revealing its cultural sophistication and thus encourage revision of unfair trade treaties." [Henitiuk, V. (2008). Going To Bed With Waley: How Murasaki Shikibu Does And Does Not Become World Literature. Comparative Literature Studies, 45(1), 40–61.]
Sidney Lewis Gulick (1860-1945) was an educator, author, and missionary who spent much of his life working to promote greater understanding and friendship between Japanese and American cultures. [wikipedia]