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

Nagakubo Sekisui (1717-1801)
Nagasaki koeki nikki [Record of a Journey to Nagasaki]
1 volume illustrated book, woodblock printed, 1805, 2 double pages and 2 single pages of preface, 76 double pages and 1 single page of text interspersed with illustrations
26.4 x 18cm.

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.
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Lot Essay

The author, Sekisui, embarked on a three-month journey to Nagasaki. On this trip he was given the task of interrogating and supervising the return of a group of castaways from Mito domain whose ship had been blown off course in 1765 and had subsequently been stranded for several years in Annam. They were finally returned to Japan via Nagasaki in 1767. Sakisui describes the journey in detail in the book, making daily entries describing the weather, travel condition and people and places encountered. He also notes some local products and regional specialities such as a shrine in Izu known for its calendars, and the town of Kashiwahara for its grilled eel. However despite the actual purpose of his journey, the castaways are mentioned only briefly on four occasions within the text.1

1.Marcia Yonemoto, Mapping Early Modern Japan: Space, Place, and Culture in the Tokugawa Period (1603-1868), (Berkeley, 2003), p. 71-3.

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