Kokkei jitsuwa (Amusing true tales)

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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 English teacher from the US, taught at Keio University and wrote a great number of texts on Japan. He also worked as a reporter for the Japan Mail (which later merged with the Japan Times) for a time and founded the short-lived newspaper The Tokyo Independent.

"Blunders at a Funeral", "How I Got Arrested", "Mistakes at a Tea Ceremonial" and "Other People's Blunders" are highlights, the latter tale relating stories imparted to Eastlake by Rear-Admiral Schufeldt about cultural gaffes (and, somewhat bizarrely, the introduction to Japan of curry) that occurred at a dinner for Japanese officials held onboard Commander Perry's Mississippi around 1854. Four chromolithographic plates of illustrations featuring Eastlake accompany the text. A delightfully relatable handful of episodes in Japanese and English by a foreign figure prominent in Meiji Japan.

One volume, complete. Original boards scraped and lightly stained. Ex-ownership stamp to title. Sticker removals and small pencil notes to endpapers. 3, 96, [47 p. of ads]. 15 x 11.4 cm. Text in Japanese and English.

Kokkei jitsuwa (Amusing true tales)
Price: $495.00 (USD)