[Japan] Bunsai Isono Nobuharu. Nagasaki miyage (Souvenirs of Nagasaki)

Yamatoya Yuhei, dated Koka 4 (1847), first month, (82) p., w. 1 full-p. map of Nagasaki Bay, 13 double-p. and 3 single-p. woodcut ills., orig. thread-bound wr. w. title on front cover, bound as a bookblock, 23 x 15.5 cm. Some internal waterst. and finger soiling, wr. creased and a bit worn along extremities and minimal other imperfections. Overall a good copy, very rare as such.

Provenance: Christie's sale 19 Dec. 2014, lot 121, indicating James E. Fagan (1926-2011) as the former owner, an American collector especially interested in the introduction of Western culture and technology to Japan’s closed Edo-era society (1603-1868, the Tokugawa period); he lived and worked in Japan as an attorney in the 1950s and 1960s. Very nice work on the port of Nagasaki on Kyushu, where the man-made island Desjima (Exit Island) for the Dutch traders, and the Tojin Yashiki (Chinese Residence) were located during Japan's period of semi-isolation from 1635 to 1854. The interesting ills. show a Dutch merchant and his Korobo merchant, a Dutch trading ship, the Dutch Residence, Titia (the wife of Jan Cock Blomhoff, Opperhoofd of the Dutch trading post from 1817 to 1824), the famous elephant brought to Japan by the Dutch in 1813, an interior scene w. Chinese merchants, a Chinese trading ship, the Chinese Residence, kite flying at Mount Konpira, the twin-arched Meganebashi ('Spectacles Bridge') and var. festivals and places of interest.