Kaigai shinwa 海外新話

Dimension: 6 3/8 x 9 1/16 in.

English title: New Stories from Abroad

Mineta Fūkō 嶺田楓江 1817-1883

The manuscript provides information about the Opium War between China and Great Britain and foreign aggression. It has 39 pages, including two double page manuscript maps, one depicting shipping routes from Europe to Asia and the Americas; another of Asia with China, Chosen (Korea), Taiwan etc. There are also two double page highly-detailed sketches of fully-fitted British man-of-war ships; sketches of soldiers with weapons, and a British admiral. With the Japanese becoming increasingly mindful of the demoralization of China by the Western powers, books like this were often banned or confiscated by the Tokugawa Shogunate. England, Russia, America and other naval powers were all competing to open Japan for trade and it was felt that if the Japanese public knew what had happened in China there would be widespread panic. Just 10 years after this book was produced, Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Japan in his “Black Ships” to force a treaty, after nearly three centuries of isolation. Other resources: See Waseda University