Hardcover. Yokohama, unknown, 1st, 1909, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 842 pages, gray cloth covers worn, spine cloth loose from spine backing, hinges cracked. Inside very good,clean, lacks title page which may never have been printed. A detailed collection of names, places, events, throughout Japanese history. English text. From a library in Japan with card and envelope inside rear cover and sticker on spine. Uncommon.

Hardcover. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1st, 1891, Book: Good, Dust Jacket: None, 128 pages. Hardcover with decorated front cover. Covers have heavy wear on edges. Light soil and darkening to pages. Gutter lightly cracked.

Hardcover. Chapel Hill, N.C., Algonquin Books, 1st, 1984, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover, 295 pages, b&w photos. INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR on half title page with old photo of author taken just after WW2 mounted on front end paper. Light edgewear to dust jacket and faint foxing to top edge, else a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. NY, Knopf, 1st, 1982, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 205 pages, b&w illustrations. The distinguished filmmaker chronicles his life from his birth in 1910 to the worldwide success in 1951 of his film "Rashomon" and provides a provocative account of the Japanese film industry. Much of the book focuses on his early life, and the reader empathizes greatly with the young Kurosawa. There was much tragedy in his young life, both within his family, but also with the nation of Japan during the years leading up to and including the war. Much of his early career was spent trying to work on and create good films while appeasing the Japanese censors. Remainder dot on top edge otherwise a clean copy.

Hardcover. Stanford CA, Stanford University Press, reprint, 1976, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: None, Hardcover, beige cloth covers, black lettering to spine, 288 pages. About 1307 a remarkable woman in Japan sat down to complete the story of her life. The result was an autobiographical narrative, a tale of thirty-six years (1271-1306) in the life of Lady Nijo, starting when she became the concubine of a retired emperor in Kyoto at the age of fourteen and ending, several love affairs later, with an account of her new life as a wandering Buddhist nun. Through the vagaries of history, however, the glory of Lady Nijo's story has taken six and half centuries to arrive. The Confessions of Lady Nijo or Towazugatari in Japanese, was not widely circulated after it was written, perhaps because of the dynastic quarrel that soon split the imperial family, or perhaps because of Lady Nijo's intimate portrait of a very human emperor. Whatever the cause, the book was neglected, then forgotten completely, and only a single manuscript survived. This was finally discovered in 1940, but would not be published until after World War II in 1950. This translation and its annotations draw on multiple Japanese editions, but borrow most heavily from the interpretations offered by Tsugita Kasumi. No dust jacket. Name on front fly leaf, otherwise a bright, clean copy.

Hardcover. Hoboken NJ, Wiley Publishing, 1st, 2003, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. The Last Samurai traces Saigo's life from his early days as a tax clerk in far southwestern Japan, through his rise to national prominence as a fierce imperial loyalist. Saigo was twice exiled for his political activities - sent to Japan's remote southwestern islands where he fully expected to die. But exile only increased his reputation for loyalty, and in 1864 he was brought back to the capital to help his lord fight for the restoration of the emperor.

Hardcover. Boston, David R. Godine, 3rd pr., 2008, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket. Tojiro, a nine-year-old orphan, sells rice cakes on the streets of 19th-century Edo, the bustling city we now call Tokyo. One of his customers is the grumpy, eccentric octogenarian Hokusai. The old man takes a liking to Tojiro, and soon employs him as his assistant. The boy's ignorance provides a convenient vehicle for introducing the artist's life and work. Much of the dialogue and action is written for the purpose of conveying information about Hokusai, as well as the technique of woodblock printing and the social customs of Edo. The book's greatest strength is not the text, but the art that enlivens every page. A combination of the author's watercolors and reproductions of Hokusai's drawings and woodblock prints, the illustrations are arranged in enticing and varied page designs.

Hardcover. Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, 1st, 1979, Hardcover in a nice dust jacket with mild fading to spine, 347 pages. This work is the autobiography of Arai Hakuseki, the celebrated Confucian scholar who holds a prominent position in Japanese history as the influential adviser to Shogun Tokugawa Ienobu and his successor Ietsugu. Hakuseki's administrative reforms, his voluminous writings, and his advice on a multitude of topics--coinage, foreign trade, taxation, diplomatic protocol, justice, the samurai code and benevolent government, for example. governed most of the policies implemented during Ienobu's rule and influenced many of those of his successors. The book contains notes, biographical notes, appendices, a chronology, maps, and an index. Name on front flyleaf, otherwise a clean, tight copy.

Hardcover. London, England, Hammond, Hammond & Co. Ltd., 1st Edition, 1953, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, 2 Volume Set, DOMESTIC SHIPPING ONLY. 1560 total pages. Hardcovers. Black cover boards, gilt title on spine. Light tanning from age to pages. Bindings good. Spines straight. A record of one of America's most distinguished diplomatic careers.