A superb copy of Kawakami Sumio’s poems on the theme of early European visitors to Japan. Printed in 1944, this is one of Kawakami’s highly rare Wartime books.
An advocate of cross-cultural collaboration and exchange, Kawakami made several books that touch upon early encounters between Japan and the West. European voyagers who came to Japan in the late 16th and early 17th centuries were referred to as nanban or nanban-jin, which translates to ‘Southern Barbarians’. During the Tokugawa reign (1603-1868), Japanese interactions with foreigners were extremely limited, and any Christian influence was strictly forbidden. The present book is Kawakami’s poems set in the time before these restrictions, when European traders and missionaries first entered Japan. We are introduced to nanban-jin figures, who travel from Europe to Nagasaki and bring their Christian faith to Japan.
This would have been a sensitive subject in 1944, when Japan was fighting against the Allied Forces in WWII. Just two years prior, the Japanese government had banned English from the curriculum and Kawakami lost his job as a high school English teacher. He then turned to making books and prints to financially support himself through the War – many of which he sold to his former high school students. As such, the books Kawakami made between 1942 and 1945 are extremely rare and precious, usually in editions no larger than 50 copies.
Visually, this book is particularly striking. Usually Kawakami would print the text and images of his books in a single black layer of woodblock which he then hand-coloured in a few areas. With the present title, however, he has printed the illustrations in a grey tone, before hand-colouring them, then printing the text in black over the top of both. Additionally, he has painted a decorative border around the first character of each poem in gilt. As such, each page is much busier and layered than his usual style. The upper cover is designed to look like a medieval choir book leaf, with a decorated initial and musical note. On the back cover there is a figure playing what appears to be a lute. Chikushi poems can also be sung, so the binding is a lovely nod to this theme.
Extremely rare. No copies in OCLC.
