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"和洋奇人傳 初編"
Jōno, Takashige [text by], Ochiai [Utagawa], Yoshiiku [illustrations by].
Tōkyō : Sanshobō , Meiji 5 [1872].
An international take on the kijinden ("eccentric figures" or "extraordinary figures") genre, featuring portraits and brief biographies of a total of 37 Japanese and Western figures, including Alexis de Tocqueville, John Britton, Arai Hakuseki, Luigi Galvani, Hiraga Gennai, William Smith, Admiral Perry, and so on. The anecdotes generally describe the events or achievements which made the figures famous. William Brecher notes in Japan’s Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930 (p. 184) that "Jōno's kijinden rationalized an integration of the two sides [academic learning and spiritual depth] while affirming the continuing importance of native culture. In that his deployment of the term kijin connotes extraordinary ability and accomplishment rather than strangeness, his subjects recover faith in native potentialities at a time when the perceived worth of Japaneseness was threatened by the superiority of Western technology". The title states that the book is the 初編 ("first series"), but there seem to be no records of later series being published.
On double leaves, fukurotoji style. Presumed original wrappers, small wormholes, ink marks, and scrapes, lacking daisen title slip. Ex-ownership stamp to first leaf of text. Wormholes, mainly to last four leaves. Housed in non-original custom slipcase. 1 v., complete. 20 leaves. 17.6 x 12 cm.