TAKEDA (Taichi).
Jindai goshu kaiko hanachigai no den [Ancient Traditions of Sericulture].
The history of Japanese sericulture
An early Meiji period book on sericulture, with charming illustrations of silkworms, their cocoons and the various types of leaves they feast upon.
There does not appear to be much information available on the author, Takeda Taiichi. However, it is clear that he has specialist knowledge on Japanese sericulture traditions. In the introduction, he writes about how Japan has developed silk domestically and how, by exporting silk products globally, it will help boost the economy. This is in keeping with similar books of the period which sought to promote Japanese products overseas.
A lovely feature of the present copy is that a previous owner has kept the original envelope the book was issued in. The envelope is purely text-based, with the author’s name, title and publisher and a stamped price in red ink. Envelopes were regularly torn off and discarded and so examples of them are very scarce.
Extremely rare. Only one copy in OCLC (NDL Tokyo).
