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Lafcadio, Hearn.. JAPANESE FAIRY TALES. The Boy Who Drew Cats. The Goblin Spider. The old Woman Who Lost Her Dumpling. Chin Chin Kobakama. The Fountain of Youth.. T. Hasegawa, 1911.

Price: US$1800.00 + shipping

Condition: Fine

Description: Hearn, Lafcadio. JAPANESE FAIRY TALES. First edition thus of the illustrated 5-volume set of Japanese folklore stories. THE BOY WHO DREW CATS. THE GOBLIN SPIDER. THE OLD WOMAN WHO LOST HER DUMPLING. CHIN CHIN KOBAKAMA. THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH. Of the five titles, with the exception of the Fountain of Youth were published as part of the original Japanese Fairy Tale Series which were in a smaller format. The 5 titles here are all of the larger original size and lack the series numbers. The titles are in Script. One often finds sets with the smaller versions substituted. Original light blue silk-backed pictorial crêpe paper covers bound with stab ties in light green silk in the Yamato toji style. Housed in the publisher's blue cloth wrap-around case with toggle clasps, titles in white to spine (overall title on spine) and printed on gilt-heightened label to front flap with small price sticker in upper right hand corner, lined with colour-illustrated paper, as issued. Woodblock-printed colour illustrations throughout. The volumes are bright and sharp. A fine set in very good, unrestored case, with wear to hinges and light sunning, else firm and complete with both toggles. Takejiro Hasegawa (1853-1938) was an innovative Japanese publisher specializing in European-language books on Japanese subjects, notably fairy tales, poetry, and ephemera such as calendars, to help Japanese people learn foreign languages. "He chose traditional stories whose subjects would already be familiar to his readers and presented these tales in a Western format. The books would open in the Western manner, reading from left to right, and the illustrations would be positioned as adjuncts to the text, instead of having text superimposed on them in the traditional Japanese fashion" (Sharf)

Seller: Bjarne Tokerud Bookseller, Vancouver, BC, Canada