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The Shogun's audience.
A. Is the throne or Audience-seat of his majesty, where he shows himself to his Princes and Nobles.
B. Are the buildings in which his Majesty is housed, consisting of more than seventy dwelling-places.
C. Are the buildings in which his majesty…
B. Are the buildings in which his Majesty is housed, consisting of more than seventy dwelling-places.
C. Are the buildings in which his majesty…
The retinue of the Dutch Ambassadors in their journey to Court.
In 1691 Kaempfer (a physician) travelled with the Dutch ambassadors from Nagasaki to Yedo, seeking an audience with Shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi. The retinue of the Dutch Ambassadors, in their journey to court, compos'd of the following persons. 1,…
The Silk Cord Makers.
"The figures represented ... are engaged in manufacturing silk-twist by a very different mode to that adopted by Europeans. Their machinery is not horizontal, but vertical. The threads are extended round a truncated cone. The females who twist…
Illustration from The Circle of Chalk.
"Mrs Chang: My lord, the matter is settled. since I have accepted your gifts, my daughter is yours. You may take her away at once. And you my child, you know that it is not I who send you forth from the shelter of my arms. For now you have been…
Settling debts at a merchants house.
A typical scene at a merchant's house during the year-end when all outstanding bills must be settled. One clerk works the abacus, another weighs the silver and a third makes entries in the ledger. Three tradesmen have arrived to present their final…
Textile patterns.
This book contains 64 colourful printed textile patterns produced by the Japanese artist Keika Hasegawa, who flourished c. 1893-1905. The pages are double folded in the Japanese style. Kyoka zuan is one of the important collections of textile…
View in the Eastern side of the Imperial Park at Gehol.
"The Emperor having been informed that, in the course of our travels in China we had shown a strong desire of seeing every thing curious and interesting, was pleased to give directions to the first minister to shew us his park or garden at Gehol. It…
Tokohou : [the story of Prince Tokugawa the fifteenth].
In 1867, the last shōgun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, resigned and the Emperor, Mutsuhito, regained the position of actual head of government. Mutsuhito took the name Meiji ('enlightened government') to designate his reign and this became his imperial…
Cormorants Fishing
"The Chinese fishermen take out with them in the morning ten or twelve of these birds, still fasting, either in light boats, or on bamboo rafts. They make them dive one or two at a time: the cormorant seldom comes up without having taken a fish, and…
Signing of the Treaty of Teintsin.
Lawless proceedings in the Canton river, the city of Peking, joss-houses, the Roman Catholic mission, military promenades at Shanghai, the Yangtze, Chinese prostitutes, first views of Deshima and Nagasaki (Japan), the persecution of Christians,…
A view of Fusy-yama : from a Japanese drawing.
"Towering over all in the western distance, but too often concealed by clouds, the majestic Fusi-yama reared its conical summit" (Oliphant, 1859, v. II, p. 97).
Indiae orientalis ... .
Abraham Ortelius (1527-98), rightly called the 'Father of Modern Cartography', developed the idea of assembling a compendium of maps to form an atlas. The first edition of his "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum" was published in 1570 and it was a great…
Raree-Show at Lin-Sin-Chow.
"The spectators and auditors at the raree-show in Lin-sin-choo belong to the industrious and humbler classes" (Allom, c.1842, v. I, p. 48).
China monumentis [frontispiece].
Kircher was ordained a Jesuit in 1628 in Mainz, Germany, but fled his homeland and settled in Rome in 1634 to escape the Thirty Years War. He remained in Rome most of his life researching a wide variety of disciplines, from geography and astronomy to…
Scene from the Spectacle of "The Sun and Moon".
"One of the most favourite mysteries presented by the strolling companies in the southern provinces, is "The Spectacle of the Sun and Moon" (Allom, 1842, v II, p. 28).
Map of Laputa and Luggnag.
The Magistrates of the Town hearing of my Letter, received me as a Publick Minister, they provided me with Carriages and Servants, and bore my Charges to Yedo [Tokyo], where I was admitted to an Audience, and delivered my Letter, which was opened…
Tongue cut sparrow.
Chirimen books are thought to have been invented in August 1885, when a Japanese fairy tale series was published by Hasegawa Takejiro (1853-1936). The books were illustrated by Sensei Eitaku. Thirty-one popular Japanese folktales were translated…
The Matsuyama Mirror.
Chirimen books are thought to have been invented in August 1885, when a Japanese fairy tale series was published by Hasegawa Takejiro (1853-1936). The books were illustrated by Sensei Eitaku. Thirty-one popular Japanese folktales were translated…
The serpent with eight heads.
Chirimen books are thought to have been invented in August 1885, when a Japanese fairy tale series was published by Hasegawa Takejiro (1853-1936). The books were illustrated by Sensei Eitaku. Thirty-one popular Japanese folktales were translated…
Modus Scribendi.
"The Society of Jesus was founded in 1539 by St Ignatius of Loyola. From their base at Goa, India, the Jesuits ventured forth to Japan and China: their goal to spread Christianity and promote the work of the Society. Over the years, their written…
Garden of the temple at lewchew.
"About this period a mutual friendship began to exist between us; confidence took place of timidity; and now, instead of permitting only a few to visit the shore at a time, they fitted up the garden of a temple as a sort of general arsenal for us;…
The city of Yedo or Edo (now Tokyo) [detail].
Between 1630 and 1830 Japan's borders were virtually closed to western visitors. The only Europeans allowed into Japan were the Dutch. Atlas Japannensis: being remarkable addresses by way of embassy from the East-India Company of the United Provinces…
Chinese Vessels.
This detail shows "two of the vessels made use of by the Chinese. The first of these marked (A), is a junk of about a hundred and twenty tons burthen, and was what the Centurion hove down by; these are most in the great rivers, though they sometimes…
The Embassadors Entry Through the Famous Chinese Wall : near 1200 miles in length [detail].
"The Wall is full six Fathom high, and four thick, so that six Horsemen may easily ride a-breast on it, and was in as good Repair as if it had not been erected above twenty or thirty Years since; no Part of it being fallen, nor annoyed by the least…
Japanese women, Simoda.
From the middle of the seventeenth to the beginning of the nineteenth-century, Japan, through the Tokugawa Shōgunate, was successful in rigorously enforcing a policy of seclusion. No Europeans were allowed into Japan except the Dutch who were…