From the Collection of James E. Fagan (1926-2011)

Mineta Fuko (1817-1883)
Kaigai Shinwa [New Stories from Overseas]
5 volume illustrated book, woodblock printed, complete, 1849, original covers with title slips:

Volume 1: inside of cover title page coloured red, 2 leaf preface, 4 leaf introduction and table of contents, followed by 1 single and 13 double pages of text interspersed with illustrations including a world map with British territories indicated in red, British ships and British soldiers

Volume 2: 22 double and 1 single page, text interspersed with 3 double page and 1 single page illustrations including the Chinese burning the confiscated opium and a large British fleet of warships departing from London

Volume 3: 26 double and 2 single pages, text with 3 double page illustrations including the Chinese firing canons at British ships and Chinese soldiers armed with swords, spears and battle axes attacking British troops armed with muskets

Volume 4: 26 double and 2 single pages, text with 3 double and 1 single page illustration of battle scenes and another of British soldiers looting, getting drunk and attacking Chinese women

Volume 5: 21 double and 1 single page, text and one double page illustration of the British victors signing the peace treaty with the Chinese
25.8 x 17.7cm.

Provenance
James E. Fagan (1926-2011) was an American collector with a special interest in the introduction of Western culture and technology to Japan’s closed Edo-era society (1603-1868), also known as the Tokugawa period. Mr Fagan studied Japanese language and history at Stanford University, and served as a US Naval officer in the Pacific theatre. He then lived and worked in Japan as an attorney in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

During this time, Fagan assembled and researched his collection of rare Edo-era woodblock and manuscript maps, prints and books not available outside Japan. Highlights include Nagasaki-e (showing the Japanese fascination with the Dutch East Indies (VOC) outpost at Deshima island), early Rangaku examinations of Western science and languages, the evolution of Japanese cartographic knowledge, and the study of English and Russian military might and technology. Imaginative illustrations and maps, from Japanese castaways reporting back to the Japanese Court, also provide a glimpse of how the Western world appeared to the first Japanese to circumnavigate the globe.

The collection demonstrates Japan’s keen curiosity about the Western world during its long isolationist period, and the artful way the Japanese perspective captures the impact of European contact.

Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.

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Lot Essay

The subject of this book is the first opium war between Britain and China (1839-42) which arose from China's attempts to suppress the opium trade. Despite clear laws prohibiting the trade, British traders had been secretly importing opium to China, causing widespread addiction and social and economic unrest. In an attempt to stop the trade, in 1839 the Chinese government confiscated a large quantity of opium warehoused in Canton by British merchants. The situation was compounded shortly after when some inebriated British sailors killed a Chinese villager and the British government refused to turn the accused men over to the Chinese courts.

War broke out and the British were soon victorious. The resultant Treaty of Nanjing which the Chinese were forced to sign stipulated a large indemnity by China, cession of five ports for British trade and residence and the right of British citizens to be tried by British courts.

There were a number of Japanese publications about the Opium War which were published in the period soon after the first war between Britain and China. Largely based on Chinese written accounts, publications such as Kaigai shinwa were sympathetic to the Chinese and broadly critical of the foreign "barbarians". However, sometimes relying on misinformation and with some elements embellished, the accounts were not always totally accurate.

Kaigai shinwa's author Fuko Mineta seems to have intended the publication to act as a warning as to what could happen in the future to Japan and was written using vigorous and lively language throughout. In order to put the material into context for the reader, the first volume opens with an introduction on England (Igirisu kokki ryaku [Outline Account of England], its geography, history, products, trade, customs and military preparedness. Titles of subsequent illustrations include Eisho juso zu [Picture of English commander in barbarian garb], Hosotsu gunso zenmen [Frontal view of a foot soldier in military garb], Eikoku taigunsen zu [Picture of a great English warship] and Jokisen zu [Picture of a steamship].

See Wataru Matsuda, Japan and China: Mutual Representations in the Modern Era, (US, 2000), Chapter 13, p. 68-80.