Utopia = Ryo seifu-dan [A Treatise on Good Governance]

US$680.00

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Utopia = Ryō seifu-dan [A Treatise on Good Governance]

Mōru, Sā Tōmasu [Sir Thomas More] [original text by]; Inoue, Tsutomu [translated by].

Tōkyō: Shiseidō, Meiji 15 [1882].

The first Japanese translation of Sir Thomas More's Utopia. More's discussion of government and social organisation was especially timely in early Meiji Japan, when political thinkers were actively examining Western institutions and considering how they might inform the development of the modern Japanese state. More's imagined society, with its rejection of private property and emphasis on social equality and rational organisation, consequently provided Japanese intellectuals and advocates of civil rights with a framework for considering the nature of an ideal state and system of government. The translator, Inoue Tsutomu (1850–1928), was a journalist who also produced some of the earliest Japanese translations of Shakespeare. An interesting example of the transmission of Western political thought in Japan during the country's rapid modernisation. 

One Western-bound volume, complete. Original boards worn and stained, with chips and small losses to extremities; spine repaired. Gutters cracked, binding remaining tight. A few minor marks internally. 164 p. 18.7 x 12.1 cm.

Utopia = Ryo seifu-dan [A Treatise on Good Governance]
Price: $680.00 (USD)