Tsūzoku Isoppu Monogatari, dai hachi-gō-bu-zu [“Aesop's Fables: illustration of number eight”]

Yamamoto, Ryūdō [illustrated by].

Kanda, [Tōkyō]: Takekawa Seikichi, Meiji 10 [1877].

An unrecorded triptych by Yamamoto Ryūdō (1845-1913), a pupil of Kawanabe Kyōsai (1831-1889), of a story from Aesop's Fables. The triptych was produ ...

Danjo Dōkenron ["On Equal Rights for Men and Women"]

Miru [Mill, John Stuart] [original text by]; Fukamauchi, Motoi [translated by].

Tōkyō: Yamanaka Ichibē, Meiji 11 [1878].

The first Japanese translation of John Stuart Mill's The Subjection of Women (first published in London in 1869), containing the first two chapters of Mill's acclaimed text. ...

Kurisumasu Karoru ["A Christmas Carol"]

Dickens, [Charles] [original text by]; Yaguchi, Tatsu [translated by].

Tōkyō : Uetake Shoin, Taishō 4 [1915].

An early Japanese edition of Dickens's classic novel by Yaguchi Tatsu (1889-1936), translator of works by Wilde, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Cervantes, Boccaccio, Thomas Hardy, D.H. Lawrence, Jack London, Hav ...

Jiyū no Kotowari ["The Logic of Liberty"] = On Liberty

Mill, John Stuart [original text by]; Nakamura, Keitarō [Masanao] [translated by]; E.W.C. [Clark, Edward Warren] [preface by].

Suruga, Shizuoka: Kihira Ken'ichirō, Meiji Mizunoesaru [1872].

The first full Japanese translation of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty (originally published in London in ...

Kaigai Hiyō Shūbunshū ["Foreign Secrets Collected and Reported"]

Shibukawa, Rokuzō ... [et al.] [original works by]; [Asano, Miyoshi (transcribed by)?].

[Nōshū, Iwate, ca. Kaei 7 (1854)]. Manuscript.

A compilation of records of letters and essays regarding attempts by Russia, the Netherlands, and North America to open Japan to trade. The index lists eig ...

Kokkei Jitsuwa ["Amusing True Tales"] = A Foreigner's Blunders in Japan

Eastlake, F. Warrington [text by]; [translator unidentified].

Tōkyō : Kanasashi Horyudo, Meiji 36 [1903].

A collection of nineteen amusing stories of embarrassing cultural and linguistic blunders made in Japan by the author, Frederick Warrington Eastlake (1856-1905). Eastlake, an ...

Kuang Shi Tu Shuo ["An Illustrated Explanation of Ore"]

Fu, Lanya [Fryer, John] [text by].

[China: publisher unidentified], Guāngxù 10 [1884].

A text on ore/natural rocks in Chinese by British missionary John Fryer (1839–1928). The work includes numerous in-text diagrams of typical shapes of rocks and crystals, and was probably produced wit ...

Kutsu no Hiai = This Misery of Boots

Wells, H.G. [original text by]; Ōya, Sōichi [translated by].

Tōkyō : Nihon Febian Kyōkai, Taishō 14 [1925].

A translation by journalist Ōya Sōichi (1900-1970) of a work published in 1907 by the socialist Fabian Society, of which Wells was a member. In the work - an extended edition of an article published in December ...

Mahometto-den ["A Biography of Muhammad"]

[Prideaux, Humphrey (original text by)]; Hayashi, Tadasu [translated by].

Tōkyō: Higashi Kan'ichi, Meiji 9 [1876].

The first biography of the Prophet Muhammad published in Japanese. The translator, diplomat Hayashi Tadasu (1850-1913), studied at University College School and King's College London between 18 ...

Morikosu Shotō Wage Daiichi ["Translated Explanation of the Moluccas, First Part"]

[Valentyn, François (original text by)]; Yoshio, Kōsaku, Nishi, Kichibē [translated by].

[Japan, ca. mid to late Edo period (1780-1830s)?]. Manuscript.

An abridged translation of the first chapter of the Uitvoerige Beschryving Der Vyf Moluccos volume of Oud en Nieuw O ...

Sokuratesu ["Socrates"]

Saiki, Sensui [text by].

Tōkyō : Keibunkan, Taishō 4 [1915].

The opening of Japan to trade brought an influx of Western books and a Renaissance-like discovery of the works of classical Greek and Roman philosophers to Japan. This book, more of a biography than a translation of Socrates's oeuvre, was produced by Saiki Sensui (18 ...

Rangaku Kei ["A Path to Dutch Learning"]

Fujibayashi, Jundō [Fuzan] [text by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified, postscript dated Bunka 7 (1810)].

Believed to be a retitled edition of Yakken Hanrei Narabini Fugen (" ...

Pītā Pan ["Peter Pan"]

Barrie, James Matthew [original text by]; Kikuchi, Kan, Akutagawa, Ryūnosuke [translated by]; Ichiki, Ton, Katō, Masao [illustrated by]. 

Tōkyō: Kōbunsha, Shōwa 4 [1929].

An early Japanese edition of Peter Pan, translated by two of the most acclaimed Japanese novelists of the twentieth century, Kikuchi Kan (1888-1948) and A ...

Pō Shishū ["A Collection of Poems by Poe"]

Poe, Edgar Allan [original text by]; Wakameda, Takeji [translated by].

Tōkyō : Etsuzandō , Taishō 12 [1923]. Third edition.

An early Japanese translation of poems by Edgar Allan Poe. The translator, Wakameda, also helped to produce a Japanese translation of The Merchant of Venice in 1913 and an English t ...

Rondon tsūshin: shin inyō hakase ["London news: new yin-and-yang professor"] in Bungei kurabu ["Literature club"]

Conan Doyle, Arthur [original text by]; Hara, Hōitsuan [translated by].

Tōkyō: Hakubunkan, Meiji 33 [1900].

An issue of Bungei Kurabu ("Literature Club") featuring an early translation of Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet, one of the ...

Seiyō Tsurezuregusa ["A Western Tsurezuregusa"]

Murai, Chinushi, Ōhashi, Eizō [translated and edited by].

Tōkyō : Hokubunkan, Taishō 4 [1915].

A collection of English epigrams by four Western authors with parallel translations in Japanese. The authors featured are Sébastien-Roch Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794), John Oliver Hobbes (Pearl Mary Teres ...

Shārokku Hōmuzu no omoide ["The memoirs of Sherlock Holmes"] [with] Shārokku Hōmuzu: saigo no aisatsu ["His last bow"] [and] Shārokku Hōmuzu no eichi ["The intellect of Sherlock Holmes"] 

Doyle, Arthur Conan [original text by]; Nobuhara, Ken [translated by]. 

Tōkyō: Shinchōsha, Shōwa 36 [1961]. 

Three books of Sherlock Holmes adventure ...

Shihonron ["Das Kapital"]

Marx, Karl [original text by]; Takabatake, Motoyuki [translated by].

Tōkyō: Kaizōsha, Shōwa 2-3 [1927-1928].

One of the earliest complete Japanese translations of Das Kapital. The translator, Takabatake Motoyuki (1886-1928), discovered an English edition of Marx's work during time he spent in jail for an article on the 1908 po ...

Shukenron: Eikoku gakushi Hobbusu-cho ["Theory of Sovereignty: by the English Scholar Hobbes"]

Hobbes, Thomas [original text by]; Monbushō [edited by].

[Tōkyō]: Monbushō Henshū-kyoku, Meiji 16 [1883].

The first published translation of Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil (1651) in Japa ...

The Great War of 1870 between France and Germany = Sen-happyaku-shichi-jū-nen Haifutsu Senki

Brockett, L.P. [original text by]; Sugawara, Toshio [translated by]; Hosokawa, Junjirō [corrections by].

Tōkyō: Suharaya Mohē, Meiji 4 [1871].

A Japanese translation of a work of the same English title on the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) by Linus Pierpont Br ...

Tsūzoku Isoppu Monogatari ["Aesop's Popular Fables"] 

Aesop [original fables by]; Watanabe, Tazunu [translated by]; Fujisawa, Bainan, Sakaki, Kōson, Kawanabe, Kyōsai, [Tenniel, Sir John], [Wolf, Joseph] [illustrated by]. 

Tōkyō: Watanabe Tazunu [printing blocks owned by], Yamashiroya Sahē [distributed by], Meiji 5-6 [1872-1873].

The most wid ...

Yaso Ichidai Benmōki ["A Refutation of the Life of Jesus"]

Tajima, Shōji [text by]; Sensai [Kobayashi], Eitaku [illustrated by].

Tōkyō: Izumiya Hanbē, Nintensha [printing blocks owned by], Meiji 7-8 [1874-1875].

A Japanese adaptation of Samuel G. Goodrich's pseudonymous Peter Parley’s Universal History, with a strong emphasis on Christian hist ...

Zokugo Mako-den: shinyaku seisho = St. Mark in Japanese Colloquial [sic]

[Translator unidentified]. 

Yokohama: Beikoku Seisho Kaisha = American Bible Society, Taishō 3 [1914].

A Taishō era translation of The Gospel of St. Mark into Japanese, published as a small pamphlet (12.7 x 9.4 cm) by the American Bible Society in Yokohama. H.W. Schwartz (Rev. He ...

"親爺教育: ジグスとマギー, 第一輯"

McManus, George [created by].

Tōkyō : Asahi Shinbunsha, [Taishō 13 (1924)].

The first Japanese language collection of Bringing Up Father cartoons by American illustrator George McManus. Another collection (believed to be the last collection published in Japanese) was produced the following year. The book includes a pream ...

Chōko Kyūridō Shōhon Chiten Shinzu ["New Diagram of the Earth Revolving"] 

Tsurumine, Shigenobu [created by].

[Japan: publisher unidentified], Bunsei 10 [1827].

An astronomical chart of the solar system created by Tsurumine Shigenobu (1788-1859), a scholar of mathematics, astronomy, and Japanese, Chinese and Western literature. In 1832, at the age of ...

Furanku Roido Raito Sakuhinshū: 1 ["First Collection of Frank Lloyd Wright's Works"] 

[Wright, Frank Lloyd (original illustrations by)]; Takanashi, Yoshitarō [edited by]; [Mendelsohn, Erich (original text by)].

Tōkyō: Kōyōsha, Taishō 15 [1926].

The first collection (of five) of this scarce early Japanese work on the buildings designed by the a ...

Hōmā Monogatari ["Tales from Homer"]

Homer [original works attributed to]; Kikuchi, Kan [translated by]; Honda, Shōtarō, Unno [Umino?], Seikō, Asano, Kaoru [illustrated by].

Tōkyō: Bungei Shunjūsha, Shōwa 4 [1929].

A highly illustrated translation by celebrated author Kikuchi Kan (1888-1948) of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Two colour illustrated plates, ...

Itazura Burinkī ["Naughty Blinky"]; Ōkikunatta Burinkī ["Blinky Grows Up"]; Burinkī to Nattsī ["Blinky and Nutsy"]

Uōru, Doroshī [Wall, Dorothy] [original text and illustrations by]; Ide, Hiroko [translated by].

Tōkyō: Dōshinsha, Shōwa 48-59 [1973-1984]. 

A complete set of three highly illustrated books from the Burinkī Biru no Boken ("The Adve ...

Seiyō Chie Ita Zukai Tsuketaru Zu Tehon = Ninety New Moveable Puzzles

Itabe, Masashichi [translated by].

Ōsaka: [Kanshōdō], Meiji 10 [1877].

An illustrated introduction to Western-style movable puzzles for Japanes ...

Koronbisu Denki ["A Biography of Columbus"]

Hirooka, Haruki [Torajirō] [translated by].

[Kumamoto?]: Seiunrō, Meiji 3 [1870].

A scarce early-Meiji text on Christopher Columbus, with two woodblock-printed illustrat ...

Seibutsu shigen: ichimei shugenron ["Origin of living things: or, in another name, an origin of species"]

Darwin, Charles [original text by]; Tachibana, Senzaburō [translated by].

Tōkyō: Keizai Zasshisha, Meiji 29 [1896]. First edition.

The first full Japanese translation of Darwin's On the origin of species, published around nine ...

Shinha Shinengeki Segidan Ichiza Hamuretsuto ["Hamlet, Staged by the New School New Theatre Justice Troupe"]

Shakespeare, William [original text by]; Yamagishi, Kayō, Doi, Shunsho [translated by].

[Japan: creator unidentified, ca. late Meiji period (before 1909)].

A Meiji era poster for a performance by the Seigi-dan troupe of Shakespeare's Hamlet, wit ...